India have been so heavily dependent on Abhishek Sharma in the last 12 months, that lack of runs from the left-hander is derailing all their plans.
Key Points
- India's combined opening stand averages a dismal 6.8 across the first five games of the T20 World Cup.
- Abhishek Sharma has been dismissed without scoring in three of the four innings in the T20 World Cup.
- India need to beat by Zimbabwe by a big margin to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
It is turning out to be a nervy couple of days for the Indian cricket fans. The Indian team face a difficult task to advance to the T20 World Cup semi-finals after suffering a big defeat at the hands of South Africa in their opening Super 8s match.
The 76 run thrashing at the hands of South Africa has left India in big trouble. Not only do they have to win their remaining two Super 8s matches by big margins, and also pray that other results go their way.
The big worry for India is that their major weapon -- their powerful batting line-up -- is misfiring badly and struggling to hit top gear.
The opening slot has been a big headache for Suryakumar Yadav-led India with the hosts losing an early wicket in all five games played, crippling their ability to attack in the Powerplay.
India's Opening Stands in T20 World Cup 2026:
- 8(8) vs USA
- 25(12) vs Namibia
- 1(6) vs Pakistan
- 0(3) vs The Netherlands
- 0(4) vs South Africa
India's combined opening stand averages a dismal 6.8 across the first five games of T20 World Cup -- the worst among the 20 participating teams, even below the associate nation teams.
Abhishek Sharma remains a huge worry for the Indians. The left-hander was dismissed for three consecutive ducks before he scratched around for 15 runs in the last game against South Africa.
On the other hand, Ishan Kishan, promoted as opener in the World Cup, slammed back-to-back half-centuries against Namibia (61) and Pakistan (77) but his form has gone missing recently, dismissed for 18 and 0 in the last two matches.
India have been so heavily dependent on Abhishek in the last 12 months, that lack of runs from the left-hander is derailing all their plans.
Not only the openers but even No. 3 Tilak Varma has failed to fire. Time and again, he has been unable to build on starts, tallying 107 runs from five innings -- getting out for 25 three games in a row while he scored 31 against The Netherlands.
India's Batting Woes Against Spin
India's left-heavy top order has seen their opponents bowl off-spinners with the new ball, a ploy which has worked successfully. South Africa opened the bowling with part-time off-spinner Aiden Markram, who dismissed Ishan Kishan for a duck in the first over.
Pakistan's Salman Agha also struck early against India with Abhishek Sharma's wicket in the first over, while The Netherlands' Aryan Dutt bowled the left-hander in the first over for a duck.
This could force India to make a change at the top of the order with Abhishek making way for Sanju Samson, but he also hasn't been in great form recently.
Samson squandered a rare opportunity against Namibia, when Abhishek was ruled out due to a stomach infection, throwing away a bright start to be dismissed for 22. Before that in the home T20I series against New Zealand in January, the wicket-keeper-batter managed just 46 runs in five innings.
Clearly, India missed a trick by not picking an experienced middle order batter like Shreyas Iyer, who has a good record against spinners in T20 cricket, in their 15-member T20 World Cup squad.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav single-handedly rescued India in the opening match against USA, with a superb 84 from 49 balls, but has little to show since then with scores of 12, 32, 34 and 18 in the next four games.
Hardik Pandya has also been a big letdown with the bat with 105 runs from five games, including a fifty against Namibia. Shivam Dube has played some explosive cameos lower down the order, smashing 158 runs at a strike rate of 154.90.
India's Batting Collapses in T20 World Cup 2026
- 4/46 against USA
- 5/5 against Namibia
- 3/16 against Pakistan
- 5/51 against South Africa
The warning signs were clearly there right from the start for the Indians. Against USA, they collapsed to 4/46 in the Powerplay and in the next game against Namibia they lost five wickets for five runs in the space of 11 balls, while looking to score quick runs in the last two overs.
In the match against Pakistan, India lost Suryakumar, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel in the space of eight balls in the last two overs.
The Indian batting line-up struggled to cope against a quality South Africa pace attack on a testing pitch in Ahmedabad.
With their squad loaded with all-rounders and spinners, India options to tweak their batting line-up are limited except for bringing in right-hander Samson to make it a left-right opening combo with Kishan.
Selection Blunders Hurting India?
India clearly made a major blunder against South Africa as they replaced the experienced Axar Patel with Washington Sundar, who bowled only two overs while he struggled with the bat, scoring just 11 after being promoted to No. 5.
Also, it was baffling that an experienced T20 finisher like Rinku Singh was demoted to No 8 with the likes of Sundar and Dube coming above him against South Africa. He is set to miss the crucial match against Zimbabwe as he had to rush home from Chennai after his father was hospitalised in Noida.
It is evident India are playing too many all-rounders in a bid to shore up their lower order but it has weakened their bowling. They will need to unleash both Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav in the must-win game against Zimbabwe in Chennai on Thursday where they need to win by a big margin to resurrect their run rate and keep their semi-final hopes alive.
Axar's inclusion becomes a necessity with India needing a spinner to keep things in check in the middle overs. Varun Chakravarthy has been among the wickets, with 10 scalps to his name but has a below-par economy rate of 10.90. He did well in the group stages against the lesser-ranked teams but was taken apart by the South African batters, who smashed him for 47 runs in his four overs.
Zimbabwe won't be easy opponents, as they showed by their stunning victories against Australia and Sri Lanka in the group stages. Even in their huge 107 run defeat against the West Indies, Zimbabwe had only themselves to blame.
Zimbabwe, who are normally excellent in the field, had a rare off day as Shimron Hetmyer, who was dropped twice, smashed a match-winning 85 from 34 balls.
But despite the defeat against the West Indies, Zimbabwe will take a lot of positives including impressive spells by the pace duo of Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava with the new ball, while leg-spinner Graeme Cremer showed good control in the middle overs even when Hetmyer was hitting the other bowlers out of the park.
India would ideally like to win by a margin of more than 60-70 runs or chase down any target set with a around 5-6 overs to spare to resurrect their run rate which currently stands at -3.800.
Interestingly, this will be the first time that India will play against Zimbabwe in a T20 International at home.
HEAD TO HEAD: India vs Zimbabwe in T20Is
| Matches | India Won | Zimbabwe Won | No Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head-to-head | 13 | 10 | 3 | 0 |
| T20 World Cups | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Matches in Zimbabwe | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 |
Probable XI: Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
Will India replace Abhishek with Samson? Will they bring back Axar and Kuldeep?
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