Ravichandran Ashwin, a former Indian cricketer, has commented on India’s lineup for the T20 World Cup 2026 next year. On December 20, the Men in Blue unveiled their 15-member T20 World Cup squad at the BCCI headquarters.
The former spin-bowling all-rounder praised the squad and was delighted to see Rinku Singh return. He also wished wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson the best of luck in the 20-over tournament, saying he was pleased that Samson would finally be able to begin the batting.
Title defence loading. Superb squad. Great to see Rinku back and happy for my thambi Sanju who will now rightfully open alongside Abhishek.
Adipoli Chetta!
Huge applause for Ishan 👏👏 who showed his hunger by grinding hard in the domestic circuit. pic.twitter.com/Mgg7i2Riw1
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) December 20, 2025
Ashwin also praised returning wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan,
Commending the southpaw for grinding his way up the domestic circuit to earn an international call-up after falling out of favour with the Indian system. Kishan recently captained Jharkhand to their first Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy victory, leading from the front with the bat.
Suryakumar Yadav will lead India’s squad, with Axar Patel as his deputy. Shubman Gill, the ex-T20I vice-captain, was noticeably dismissed from the squad following a spate of poor T20I performances in recent times. Jitesh Sharma and Nitish Kumar Reddy were not picked.
India, slotter in Group A, have their group stage matches on February 7 (USA), February 12 (Namibia), February 15 (Pakistan) and February 18 (Netherlands). They will be entering the competition as defending champions after winning the 2024 edition.
India’s team for T20 World Cup 2026
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel (vc), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
India
