Defending T20 World Cup winners India are into the Super 8 round of the 2026 edition of the tournament, where they will face South Africa in the first match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The Form
Despite winning all the games in the group stage, the Suryakumar Yadav-led side has a few issues that it needs to address before taking on the finalist of the last edition.
One of the issues that they will have to address at the earliest is regarding the selection of the best opening pair, given that the openers haven’t succeeded in getting the team off to a good start in thecompetition so far
The Performance
One of the reasons for the failure of India’s opening partnership has been theform or the lack of it of Abhishek Sharma. The left-hander has featured in three of the four games that India has played and hasn’t been able to open his account so far.
Having said that, Abhishek was in magnificent form before the T20 World Cup, and was scoring runs for fun no matter which team he was playing against and would hope to get things back on track as he is expected to get one more chance in the upcoming match against South Africa, which he will have to make the most of
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The Redemption
Ishan Kishan has made a strong comeback in international cricket after being out of action for the last two years. The wicketkeeper batter who wasn’t a part of India’s World Cup plans as recently as December 2025 was picked in the series against New Zealand following a string of consistent performances in domestic cricket and hasn’t looked back since then.
Kishan scored a breathtaking century against New Zealand, which was followed by an attacking half-century on a difficult pitch against Pakistan and is one of the strongest contenders to be one of the openers for India in the Super 8 leg.
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The Opportunity
Sanju Samson, who is one of the three openers in India’s T20 World Cup squad, hasn’t had a lot of opportunities since 2025 but has looked good while batting whenever he has featured in the playing XI.
Sanju was included in the playing XI for the game against Namibia in Delhi, and the wicketkeeper batter, as he often does, got off to a blistering start but was dismissed after scoring 22 runs off just 8 balls. The pattern of him getting off to a start and not converting them into a substantial score might result in Sanju being left out of the playing XI in the Super 8 round as well.
The Pivot
Although Shubman Gill is not in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, he was looked upon as one of the openers for the tournament, but lack of runs from the bat meant that India’s T20I vice captain had to be dropped from the team.
The Conclusion
If we go by the nature of T20 cricket, which demands openers who complement each other, the team management might decide to stick with the pair of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan for the Super 8 round.
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