India primed to go where no team has gone before

India are in a rarefied stratum of T20I cricket, carving consistency out of its inherent chaos. Under Suryakumar Yadav, this team is pushing toward a feat no one has achieved in this format before: a successful World Cup title defence and a third title overall. India know from personal experience that a home World Cup often magnifies pressure. No team has ever won a T20 World Cup on its own soil.

But this Indian side has spent the last two years defying conventions. A win percentage of 80 has smoothed over the waves of variance T20 brings. They've reduced it to something repeatable, with a level of control that should lead them to the podium.

The squad:
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Axar Patel (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh

India approached World Cup selection with clarity. They moved on from Shubman Gill in the top-order, seeing it as a disruption. Sanju Samson reunited with Abhishek Sharma at the top but endured a struggle until the last series before the event. They moved on from Jitesh Sharma as the back-up wicketkeeper and drafted in Ishan Kishan, who has shot to the top of the order.

India have a finishing axis of Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh, and a batting order beyond the openers that can be moulded by match situation. Among bowlers, picking both Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy remains a luxury which compromises batting depth. Harshit Rana's injury led to Mohammed Siraj replacing him, who doesn't offer the same batting cushion.

India have hit near-perfect notes since winning their second T20 World Cup in June 2024. They've won 33 of 41 T20Is in this period, including an undefeated run in last year's Asia Cup. They've won eight bilateral series—four each at home and away—against oppositions like Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand.

Last five T20Is: W-W-W-L-W (latest)

India's current batting flamboyance traces back to 2022, after the World Cup semifinal loss to England. In this post-Rohit, post-Kohli era, India have scaled newer heights of batting bravado.

This shift is evident in PowerPlay batting, hitting close to 10-an-over. India separate themselves by carrying similar force through the middle-overs and death, striking at more than nine and beyond ten respectively.

This 'new India' has scored 12 totals of 200-plus in this timeline, when no other team has more than seven. India's top-three T20I scores—297/6, 283/1 and 271/5—have all come in this cycle. India have lost just six of 41 matches in this period, only two at home when chasing scores over 200.

Who can bend a match in 10 balls
Abhishek Sharma leads this batting revolution, blazing away from the first ball. He strikes at 194.74 in T20Is—a statistical outlier. Of batters facing at least 500 deliveries in the format, no one else has a strike rate over 175.

All India's fixtures are 7 pm IST starts, bringing dew into play. They begin against USA in Mumbai, then face Namibia in Delhi, with a four-day gap. Travel increases after that: Delhi to Colombo for Pakistan, then Colombo to Ahmedabad for Netherlands, each with a two-day turnaround.

The opening round offers no real banana peels. The Colombo game against Pakistan could present a subtle shift if played, with conditions expected to favour spin more than at home.

This is a team built to absorb such change, with spin-hitters in their line-up and quality spinners of their own. This might be the match to unleash both Kuldeep and Varun, though it would sacrifice some batting depth with Harshit Rana ruled out.

What a good World Cup looks like
India head into the tournament as the gold standard of T20 cricket. Anything less than a final appearance will go down as underperformance.