First group stage and then Super-8 round. Team India, which came to defend its title in the T20 World Cup 2026, had to face a situation in the initial matches of both the rounds, which no one had expected. The action replay of the action that the Indian team had seen against USA in its first match of the group stage, which is considered a contender to become champion for the second consecutive time, was also seen in the opening match of the Super-8 round. The Indian team’s batting line-up, which was under question throughout the tournament, also fell apart against South Africa.
Before the T20 World Cup 2026, the batting of the Indian team was considered to be the biggest threat to the bowlers of the rest of the team. Everyone was worried about how the bowlers would stop this explosive batting line-up. But after the start of the tournament, the situation seemed to have completely changed. Team India won all four matches of the group stage but the entire batting line-up could never put together a strong performance. In the very first match against USA, 6 wickets had fallen for just 77 runs.
Then it seemed that maybe this would not happen again and that was just an exception, but in the very first match of the Super-8 round, Team India’s batting collapsed against South Africa. In this match played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, South Africa batted first and scored a strong score of 187 runs. Team India was expected to respond strongly to this. But this did not happen and it started in the first over itself, when Ishan Kishan was out without opening the account. In no time, Team India lost its first three wickets by the fourth over.
After the dismissal of Ishaan, Tilak Verma and Abhishek Sharma, the onus was on captain Suryakumar Yadav and promoted Washington Sundar. It was expected that these two would manage the team. It was captain Surya who saved the team against USA. But this time both of them could not do anything. Corbin Bosch first dismissed Sundar and then Surya and India lost 5 wickets in just 9.1 overs. That means Team India lost 5 wickets in just 55 balls, while the team’s score was only 51 runs. Apart from Bosch, Marco Janson took 2 wickets and Aiden Markram took one wicket for South Africa.