Team India not only defeated New Zealand comprehensively by 48 runs in the fifth T20I in Thiruvananthapuram but also covered most of their bases going into the marquee ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. In doing so, the reigning T20 World champions are the overwhelming favourites to defend their title.
Since winning the previous T20 WC under Rohit Sharma at the Caribbean and the United States, India have featured in 42 T20Is off which they won 33, lost only six while three matches ended in ‘no result’.
This dominance includes eight bilateral series wins (nine back-to-back on record if the 3-0 whitewash of Afghanistan is included) and the 2025 T20 Asia Cup where Suryakumar Yadav & co. maintained a clean slate winning all seven matches that they played – three against once arch-rivals Pakistan!
The ultra-aggressive approach
The Men in Blue, interestingly, won eight of the nine matches at the previous T20WC, defeating every opponent that came their way barring the washout against Canada. If we include these into the stats, then the win-loss ratio gets even more stronger i.e. 40 wins, six losses and four no results in 50 matches – a win percentage of 80% in the most unpredictable format. Isn’t this a record to cherish ages to come?
For someone who understands cricket can, well make out the sheer consistency behind this success. Following India’s exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, to eventual champions England, the then captain Rohit conjured up the fact that this is not the way India should be approaching the slam bang format. The only way to bury the ghosts of knock outs is to play a fire-brand style of cricket where aggression takes the centre stage.
Rohit himself changed the approach leading by example – playing it the Virender Sehwag way: attacking from the word go irrespective of the pitch conditions, the bowlers, and the equation. Who can forget the carnage that Rohit did to Mitchell Starc at the quarter-final of the T20 WC 2024.
And since then, the process to evolve as per the format demands began. The Indian team management started infusing T20 specialists, the way England and Australia have been doing – specialist batters, bowlers, and all-rounders into each format. For a country that has thus far largely believed in ‘one captain for all-formats’ started segregating at least the white-ball format from the red-ball and the result gradually flowed in.
In doing so, the IPL became the platform that acted as the pool from which the T20 superstars were roped into the men’s senior team. Today, within a span of two-three years, India has shown the world what ‘setting high standards’ mean in T20 cricket. India has such a strong bench strength that they can field two-three international teams against three different oppositions at the same time.
If England changed the way one-day cricket is played – the evolution happened between 2015 and 2019 under Eoin Morgan when they instilled the fact that 400 runs can be breached in a 50-over format, India has the bragging rights to believe in the fact that the batting depth that they possess, 300 can be breached very often in the T20 format. Notably, India holds the record for the second-highest team total by a full member ICC nation against a full member ICC nation: 297/6 vs Bangladesh, a record which stayed for almost a year until England scored 304/2 vs South Africa.
What does this mean for co-hosts India at upcoming T20 World Cup?
At present, India under Suryakumar is the most successful team in the T20 format. They have ticked all the boxes going into the multi-nation global tournament. As co-hosts alongside Sri Lanka, the Men in Blue are the overwhelming favourites to defend their title. If they are able to do so, they will not only become the first team to win three T20 WC titles but also will become the first side to successfully defend the title. India (2007, 2024), West Indies (2012, 2016) and England (2010, 2022) are the only three nations to have won the T20 WCs twice till date.
A proud record to boast
If we include the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 (10-1), the ICC World T20 2024 (8-0 [1]), the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 (5-0), and the Asia Cups 2023 (4-1 [1]) and 2025 (7-0), India dominated and won all but one in the white-ball tournaments handsomely with a win-loss ratio of 34-2 [2]. They have been a force to reckon with! White-ball giants, indeed who can be compared with the mighty Australians of the 2000s – the invincible XI led by Ricky Ponting.
Time to reap the rewards of the ‘process’
The Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid era ended on a glorious note at the shores of the Caribbean in 2024. The baton was passed on to the next generation – the upcoming stars guided by Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir. As a coach Gambhir is lucky enough to get an enthusiastic bunch of cricketers who have overcome the fear of failures in crunch matches. This young Team India led by an experienced SkY is aiming to defend the crown at home. Come February 7, India will begin their title defence against the USA at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The process of evolution has already begun. These guys will continue to aim for glory at home like the way they did two years ago (50-over-WC). The only thing they would want to change is to jump the final hurdle this time which they failed to achieve in front of the home crowd in Ahmedabad. Interestingly, even this time the final is to be played at Ahmedabad, provided Pakistan qualifies for the final (then the final will be played in Colombo).
A settled unit
India have almost fixed their ideal playing XI ahead of the T20 WC. In the fifth T20I against New Zealand, the script was well-set for Sanju Samson, to seal his spot as an opener with the World Cup squad. Even if he justified his selection ahead of the off-colour Shubman Gill, he was outclassed by fellow wicket-keeper and opening batter Ishan Kishan, whose whirlwind knock of 103 off 43 (SR: 240) sealed his spot as the opener along with Abhishek Sharma.
This makes the top-order a left-heavy list with the comeback of Tilak Varma from injury. Irrespective of the pitch conditions provided by ICC, ideal playing XI for India should be: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy. This on paper is the most balanced playing XI across venues. The likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana and Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper 2) can be tried against associate nations like the USA, Namibia and the Netherlands.
Geopolitical tensions off the pitch
It started with Bangladesh objecting not to play in India following the expulsion of Mustafizur Rahman from KKR (due to political tensions across the border) ahead of IPL 2026 and requesting the ICC to shift all their fixtures to Sri Lanka. Following the member nations’ 14-2 voting against their wish, they continued to stick to their demands eventually resulting in their ouster with Scotland (14th ranked ICC associate nation) replacing them.
Pakistan came out in support of Bangladesh and put up their demand of forfeiting their WC fixture against arch-rivals India that is to be played in Colombo on February 15. Despite ICC’s warning related to severe sanctions, the PCB is yet to come up with any further development following the Govt of Pakistan’s tweet on boycotting the India tie. My opinion regarding this is that Pakistan simply doesn’t want India to successfully co-host the biggest-ever T20 World Cup where for the first time 20 nations are participating. Time will tell whether Pakistan too gets to play the T20 WC or gets replaced by 21st ranked Uganda.