Expectations have skyrocketed after the Indian team under captain Suryakumar ‘Sky’ Yadav successfully defended the Men’s T20 World Cup title. What will it take for the team to win forthcoming events in the shortest format? Sunil Warrier analyses the win and looks at the way ahead
After India completed an emphatic title-win in the ICC 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup over New Zealand, former England captain and no-nonsense commentator Michael Atherton told Sky Sports Cricket that India are more than a “pre-eminent T20 side”. “They are the pre-eminent white-ball side at the moment,” he said.
And then he goes on to make a very dangerous prediction – ominous for the other teams and burdenful of expectations for the Indians. “They may well mop it all up, there is a 50-over World Cup next year, and they have the chance now to hold the Champions Trophy, T20 World Cup, and the 50-over World Cup (to be hosted by South Africa-Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2027) all in one go, and that will surely be their aim,” Atherton went on to say.
Atherton has based his prediction on the fact that “they have won 30 out of 32 ICC global games in the last two years” and “have only been beaten by Australia in the 50-over World Cup final and by South Africa in the T20 Super 8 stage”.
The former cricketer as well as the rest of the world will need to be told that India is targeting not just ICC events. They also intend to annex the Olympic gold when cricket makes its debut at Los Angeles in 2028 and the next T20 World Cup the same year – not happy with a three-peat, they want a hat-trick. This year there is also the Asian Games in Japan. Though India will aim for a top podium finish, it is not known yet if the best team will be sent.
After joining a select band of World Cup-winning captains – Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, captain Suryakumar Yadav said: “It feels good to win 2024 and 2026 back-to-back. The next target is the Olympics and T20 World Cup. The team has good momentum.”
Such is the aura of the team led by Yadav that Indian supporters now firmly believe that our T20 team is invincible and can conjure up magic at any venue and against any opposition. Expectations have truly Sky-rocketed.
Indian supporters firmly believe the T20 team is invincible
Credit for India’s T20 success should go to not just Yadav and his band but also to coach Gautam Gambhir and the selection panel led by former Indian allrounder Ajit Agarkar. There was no guarantee that the team picked by them would go on to win the title. But, what’s important is that they decided to select the best players possible by taking brave and bold decisions.
They dared to drop Test captain Shubman Gill, elevate Yadav to captaincy over Hardik Pandya, chose to ignore the experienced Shreyas Iyer’s recent good form but trusted Ishan Kishan on the same premise. They completely overlooked Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal who were part of the squad two years ago. They resurrected and persisted with Sanju Samson even though he was not in the greatest of form in the run-up to the Ahmedabad win.
Samson deserved best player of the tournament
Even during the campaign, the decision-makers made courageous decisions to open with Samson, who found form to emerge best player, Varun Chakravarthy, who claimed 14 wickets but leaked runs, continued with allrounder Shivam Dube even though he didn’t bowl much, retained Abhishek Sharma despite a string of poor scores and kept the effervescent Rinku Singh on the bench. It’s another matter that different players rose to the occasion at different times, but the fact is that the selection committee backed themselves and trusted the players to come good. They did, and how!
Those in the hotseat will need to continue to make decisions, some that are out-of-the-box and most that are daring. Will they look short-term – only this year — or long-term – till 2028 Olympics and next T20 World Cup — is going to be the moot question? Should they lock in key members and work around the others or just look at current form to pick teams? There’s an oceanic pool of talent to pick players from and it is not going to be an easy task for the selection committee.
Credit for India’s T20 : Yadav and Gautam Gambhir
For starters, the committee members will have to take a call on captain Yadav who, at 35, is not going to get any younger two years from now. Though certainty in the playing XI was the main factor for him to be chosen as captain, Yadav, the batter, was hardly in the prolific form that one is so used to seeing him in.
Then there is the dilemma of when to wrap and unwrap the ‘once-in-a-generation’ fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah from mothballs. Thirty-four in two years, Bumrah’s body would have taken a lot more toll despite restricted usage. From now to the 2028 Olympics, how much should he play to ensure the body remains fit to deliver more trophies. At the T20 World Cup, he was in brilliant, parsimonious and imperious form.
Considered to be the young man’s game, there will be some others from this batch who will be on the other side of 30. One can always argue that there are players in other teams who are pushing 40, so why can’t India persist with some younger ‘veterans’. Selecting players with a view to win titles over the next two years is going to be a crazy challenge and a headache for the selection committee.
The nursery for the selectors will continue to be the Indian Premier League which will see three more editions before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The event is not only the richest in terms of money but also for the wealth and quality of homegrown players it throws up with remarkable consistency in every edition.
The gentleman’s game of cricket which, in India, had players largely from state capitals like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and the national capital of Delhi, has thrown the net so wide that a Samson comes from the fishing village of Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram, an Ishan Kishan hails from Patna and plays for Jharkhand, and a Rinku Singh is from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. And there are many more with rags-to-riches and meritorious stories.
Enthused by the moolah and players that the IPL harvests, even state associations are holding their own T20 tournaments. While the player pool in the IPL is filled up with players from top cricket-playing nations, state tournaments are forced to look at village, taluka and gram panchayat levels to select players. Talent scouts are roaming around the countryside with an eagle eye to pick the next Bumrah and Yadav.
One is not sure how many T20 internationals India are scheduled to play over the next 30 months. As such, the form of players will continue to be tested in the IPL, the 18th edition of which begins on March 28.
The team that won the T20 World Cup certainly deserves all the accolades and monetary awards. But all of them, including the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar who did not get to play much, will be under review. And so will be fast bowler Harshit Rana who was unlucky to miss out due to an injury and will join the IPL towards the end.
Players like Gill and Jaiswal will be keen to prove a point and their T20 worth. This will put the pressure on players like Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. A couple of ill-timed swishes is enough to bring about the downfall of the World Cup heroes. Every run, wicket and catch will matter. Every movement will be under hawk-eyed scrutiny.
Then, let’s not forget one certain Vaibhav Suryavanshi. All of 15 now, he exploded on the national cricketing landscape with a breathtaking 101 off merely 38 balls playing for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans last year. Youngest, fastest, quickest, bravest and several other ‘ests’ are now attested to Suryavanshi’s name. In the final of the 2026 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, Vaibhav smashed 175 runs off 80 balls against England, smashing 15 fours and 15 sixes in a record-breaking knock. Needless to say, India won that title too.
With the kind of reputation he will come before the IPL, expectations will be high from Suryavanshi. Oh, did we forget to say where he is from — Samastipur in Bihar. In good form, he is expected to score heavily in the coming IPL. Rival teams may well sign up for Israel’s Iron Dome for protection from Suryavanshi’s missile hits.
National selectors would be in a quandary when to blood him and, more importantly, who to drop. If Sachin Tendulkar could be blooded into the international arena at 16, why can’t Suryavanshi too be inducted into the national senior team. The youngster is already being hailed as the next Sachin. He certainly has all the trappings of the former star.
In the coming two years and more, difficult decisions will have to be taken. Many will be unpleasant and the selectors, the coach and captain (whoever it be) will need to have the conviction to stand by them. Criticism will come from all quarters and every Amar, Akbar and Anthony will seek justification. The selectors will have to continue to remain brave and bold.
