Defending Champions India will host the 2026 T20 World Cup alongside Sri Lanka. Although the current bunch of players is quite talented, India will miss the services of veterans Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja, who played their part in the side’s silverware win in the 2024 World Cup at Barbados. Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag advised skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Head Coach Gautam Gambhir to take the upcoming Asia Cup as an opportunity to look at the new players for 2026 showpiece event.
“I think in the T20 format, this Asia Cup can serve as a great preparation for our 2026 T20 World Cup. It’s an opportunity to see which new players should be given chances and who can be included in the squad. You can start building a team for the World Cup,” Sehwag said on Sony Sports Network. “In my opinion, there is no better opportunity for the Indian team to check its strength than the Asia Cup.”
No chance of winning the T20 World Cup: Srikkanth
Former Indian chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth opined that while this set of players might end up winning the Asia Cup, they might not win the T20 World Cup coming up. “We might win the Asia Cup with this team, but there is no chance of winning the T20 World Cup with this bunch. Are you going to take this team to the World Cup? Is this the preparation for the T20 World Cup, which is hardly six months away?” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
“They have gone backwards. Axar Patel has been axed from vice-captaincy. I don’t know how Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, and Harshit Rana have come in. IPL is considered the main criterion for selection, but the selectors seem to have considered performances before that,” he added.
Srikkanth also questioned the Indian batting order. ‘Who will bat at No. 5? Five has to be either Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma or Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh. Hardik Pandya usually bats at No. 5, so now, Patel Axar cannot bat at six. I can’t understand how they picked Dube. Yashasvi Jaiswal have performed in international cricket and IPL as well. What does he do?”
