Holders India will enter the T20 World Cup as firm favourites on home soil, but coach Gautam Gambhir faces intense scrutiny under the weight of expectation from a billion-plus fans.<\/p>\n
India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, will begin their campaign against the United States at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
It will round off the opening day of the tournament’s 10th edition, which has been marred by a chaotic build-up.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh last month refused to play in India, citing security concerns, and were kicked out to be replaced by Scotland.<\/p>\n
This week the Pakistan government followed up by barring its team from playing against India in Group A on February 15 in Colombo as a protest at Bangladesh’s treatment.<\/p>\n
The boycott has robbed the group stage of the biggest rivalry and money-spinning spectacle, but leaves India in pole position to top the group.<\/p>\n
Pakistan should also progress to the Super Eights in second place, barring a slip-up against the Netherlands, Namibia or the USA, who make up the five-team group.<\/p>\n
Top-ranked India reinforced their credentials as tournament favourites with a recent 4-1 win over New Zealand — their ninth successive T20 bilateral series triumph.<\/p>\n
But home defeats in other formats have put Gambhir’s high-profile job on the line.<\/p>\n
India were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in a Test series last year and New Zealand won an ODI series 2-1.<\/p>\n
Gambhir, 44, replaced Rahul Dravid as coach after the T20 World Cup triumph in 2024 and has lost 10 out of 19 Tests.<\/p>\n
Swashbuckling Sharma<\/p>\n
Indian media suggested the former batsman and World Cup-winner may lose his job if India fail in the 20-team tournament.<\/p>\n
“He should stay away from social media till the World Cup and focus on the team,” India batsman Ajinkya Rahane told website cricbuzz.<\/p>\n
It will be India’s first T20 World Cup since the retirements of then captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli following the final victory in Barbados in 2024.<\/p>\n
India first won the title under Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Johannesburg in 2007 but will have to defy history to win again, with no team having previously gone back-to-back.<\/p>\n
Abhishek Sharma has replaced Rohit in the role of fearless opener, with the swashbuckling batsman scoring at a punishing strike rate of more than 194.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old left-hander is in form. He\u00a0 smashed India’s second fastest 50, off 14 balls, against New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Captain Suryakumar ended a batting slump with three half-centuries in the same series while Ishan Kishan’s comeback has added muscle to the batting order.<\/p>\n
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar told broadcaster JioStar that India were full of confidence.<\/p>\n
“Even if there is a small stumble, this team knows it can recover, regroup, and continue marching towards victory,” said the former India captain.<\/p>\n
The bowling attack, led by Jasprit Bumrah, has new talent in the shape of medium-pacer Harshit Rana.<\/p>\n
Bumrah, Rana and Arshdeep Singh form the seam attack, with Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube as the all-rounders.<\/p>\n
“It’s a luxury that we have a handful of bowlers that can bowl in every situation,” bowling coach Morne Morkel said.<\/p>\n
“Part of the thinking … was to look at different sorts of combinations. We don’t want teams to have set plans against us.”<\/p>\n
Spinner Washington Sundar and batsman Tilak Varma are recovering from injury, but both are expected to be fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Holders India will enter the T20 World Cup as firm favourites on home soil, but coach Gautam Gambhir faces intense scrutiny under the weight of expectation from a billion-plus fans. India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, will begin their campaign against the United States at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. It will round off the opening …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}