New Delhi: Suryakumar Yadav-led India will lock horns with USA in their opening game of the T20 World Cup 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, February 07. The defending champions will begin their historic quest to become the first team to retain the T20 World Cup title and become the most successful team in the history of the tournament by lifting their third trophy.
No team has ever managed to win the T20 World Cup in successive editions. India are also aiming to become the first team to lift the prestigious trophy at home. The no.1 T20I team in the world at present, India, will start the tournament as overwhelming favourites, considering the quality and firepower in their ranks.
India have a settled combination heading into the tournament, barring a change expected at the top of the order. The misfiring Sanju Samson is likely to be replaced by the in-form Ishan Kishan as an opener after failing to grab his opportunities in the recently concluded T20I series against New Zealand at home.
Samson was allowed to open the batting with Abhishek Sharma in all five matches against the Kiwis. However, he failed to deliver and was replaced by Kishan in India’s only warm-up match against South Africa earlier this week. Kishan has been in red-hot form and has been scoring runs consistently. He is set to pair up with Abhishek at the top, making the left-hand duo a destructive pairing.
Tilak Varma back at no.3
India
India’s predicted XI for T20 World Cup 2026 opener against USA:
Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel (vc), Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy