India will be entering the 2026 World Cup as the defending champions. Many fans and experts believe that the team’s ace pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, will be the biggest trump card for the team.
However, former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin believes that India’s title defence will not hinge only on Bumrah anymore. The off-spinner feels that two newer names now shape the way the opposition teams will plan for India.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin picked Abhishek Sharma and Varun Chakaravarthy as the real match-up rivals must crack if they want to stop India from going back-to-back in T20 World Cups.
Focus will be on Abhishek and Varun
Ashwin began by underlining how the conversation has already moved beyond the familiar ‘handle Bumrah’ template when teams prepare for India in T20Is.
“If any team wants to win the T20 World Cup in India, they will have to master two factors. I was saying until now that handling Jasprit Bumrah. But I will say right now, the way I have seen Tim David handle Varun Chakaravarthy, I am thinking teams will gun for Abhishek Sharma and Varun Chakaravarthy if they have to get past India,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
It is a striking admission from a bowler who has spent much of his recent analysis praising Bumrah’s influence. Here, though, he effectively reframes India’s threat for 2026 around an attacking left-hand opener and a mystery spinner who bowled the crunch overs in Hobart.
Ashwin’s assessment is rooted in the recently concluded T20I series in Australia. Abhishek has already forced teams to redesign their new-ball plans with his high-risk powerplay hitting, while Chakaravarthy’s trajectory, angle, and variations have demanded specific match-ups in the middle overs.
The off-spinner believes those tactical blueprints from this series will become templates for the World Cup itself. “Against Abhishek Sharma, they will see this plan Australia has used against him in this series, and they will imbibe that. Whoever is coming to the World Cup will prepare similarly against Varun Chakaravarthy because that will give them the leverage in that World Cup,” he added.
In other words, Ashwin expects opposition analysts to lift Australia’s fields, lengths, and match-ups almost directly into their pre-tournament planning, both for the left-handed batter at the top and for the KKR spinner in the middle overs.
The context makes his words even sharper. India, coached by Gautam Gambhir and led in T20Is by Suryakumar Yadav, have looked close to unplayable at times in the last 12 months, despite the post-2024 T20 WC retirement for Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja from the format.
By isolating Abhishek and Varun as the two pieces rivals must master in Indian conditions, Ashwin is effectively offering a tactical map: survive the early assault from the fearless left-handed batter, and then decode the mystery spinner on turning pitches. Fail at either, and in his view, teams won’t get past India in the 2026 T20 WC.