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Team India’s Likely Playing XI Vs USA: In its first match of the T20 World Cup, India will face the United States (USA) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday (February 7). In the first match, Ishan Kishan will open with Abhishek Sharma while Sanju Samson is sure to sit out. The chances of Kuldeep Yadav getting a place in the playing eleven are also very less.
Ishaan may get the responsibility of opening in place of Sanju Samson.
New Delhi. Team Indian team will start its T20 World Cup title defense campaign in Mumbai on Saturday. In its first match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the Indian team will face the United States at the Wankhede Stadium. Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, India remained invincible and won the T20 World Cup in 2024. Suryakumar Yadav would like to repeat this achievement in 2026. India’s group includes teams from USA, Pakistan, Namibia, Scotland and Netherlands.
World number one T20 batsman Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan will open the innings in the first match against USA. 27-year-old Ishaan was also a part of India’s T20 World Cup team in 2021. He is all set to be selected in the playing eleven in place of Sanju Samson. Samson was included in India’s T20 World Cup 2026 squad as the first-choice wicketkeeper-batsman on December 20, 2025, but his batting performance in the five-match T20 International series against New Zealand last month was not impressive. On the other hand, Ishaan took full advantage of this opportunity and played a brilliant inning of 76 runs in 32 balls in the second T20 International match and scored a century in 42 balls in the fifth match on 31 January.
Ishaan may get the responsibility of opening in place of Sanju Samson.
Ishaan started the innings with Abhishek in the practice match.
After this, on February 4, in the warm-up match against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, Ishaan also started the innings in place of Samson. In the practice match, Ishaan scored 53 runs in just 20 balls. Tilak Verma could not play the five-match T20 series against New Zealand due to injury, but he proved his fitness in two practice matches (India-A vs America). The 23-year-old left-handed batsman is now all set to bat at number three. After him, captain Suryakumar Yadav and all-rounders Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Shivam Dubey will bat.
Bumrah-Arshdeep will take charge of the pace attack
Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh will be the two fast bowlers for India against America and world No. 1 T20 bowler Varun Chakravarthy will lead the spin attack. However, it will be interesting to see whether Kuldeep Yadav is able to make a place in the playing eleven or not. Kuldeep played three T20 matches for India in the home series against New Zealand last month and took four wickets. If this spinner from Kanpur is selected in the playing eleven, then Rinku Singh may not get a chance.
India’s probable playing eleven against USA
Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakraborty.
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