India has a stronger, more contemporary team going into the T20 World Cup 2026, but they still have to deal with form issues, historical curses, and cross-border political flashpoints.
India starts its T20 World Cup campaign with two titles that have never been kind to the competition in its brief history: host and defending champion. India now has the opportunity to change history because neither the host country nor the current champion have ever raised the trophy.
It will also be the country’s first major ICC tournament in many moons without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the dressing room. Experience and aura are eliminated by their absence, but a new equilibrium has also been able to establish itself. Compared to several recent iterations, India's squad going into the World Cup is deeper, more adaptable, and more in line with the demands of contemporary T20 cricket, as evidenced by the stories and statistics in this issue.
However, form charts and probability tables are rarely used in sports. Instead, it bends to specific events, players' courage, instinct, and grit on certain days. India does carry a few concerns, including injury clouds and questions around the form of opener Sanju Samson and skipper Suryakumar Yadav. The captain, however, offered some timely reassurance in the recently-concluded series against New Zealand. India is expected to negotiate the group stage comfortably, but sterner examinations will arrive quickly.
A growing geopolitical footprint sits on top of the cricket. Bangladesh was excluded after refusing to play matches in India, with Scotland roped in to fill the gap just days before the tournament. Pakistan then declared that it would boycott its high-profile, high-stakes match against India on February 15 while holding the remainder of its matches in Sri Lanka, following the hybrid format of the Champions Trophy the previous year, in which India played all of its games in Dubai.
The sport was shocked by the Pakistani government's decision. The India-Pakistan contest, now restricted to just global events, remains world cricket’s single biggest driver of revenue and reach. However, any solution that prioritizes athletic reasoning over political pressure seems a long way off, putting pressure on the current international cricket order. Cricket is scheduled to return to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, but the ongoing hostilities and a total collapse in relations between the two boards of neighboring countries could jeopardize the sport's chances.
In sports, fault lines are not limited to cricket. While the US administration has indicated that visa exemptions will apply for events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, heightened tensions could still prevent countries like Iran from participating. In reaction to wider diplomatic tensions resulting from President Trump's plans for Greenland, a few European countries have also started thinking about boycotts.
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