• December 20, 2025

India’s T20 World Cup 2026: Sanju Samson included, Shubman Gill dropped

MUMBAI Dec 20: India have announced their squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 and T20I series against New Zealand. The BCCI selection committee, led by chief selector Ajit Agarkar, has not only removed Shubman Gill from vice-captaincy, but has also dropped him entirely from the squad.

Wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma has also been left out, in favour of the in-form Ishan Kishan, who last played a T20I for India more than two years ago. Sanju Samson has been selected as the primary wicket-keeper batter. Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side. Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar have both been included as well. There are no standby members in the squad.

India’s squad for T20 World Cup 2026 and New Zealand T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

The 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be co-hosted by Board of Control for Cricket in India and Sri Lanka Cricket from 7 February to 8 March 2026. A total of twenty teams will compete in 55 matches across five venues in India, and three in Sri Lanka.

The number of participants remained as twenty teams, which included teams from the two hosts, the top seven teams from the 2024 edition, the three highest-ranked teams in the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings not already qualified, and eight other teams determined through regional qualifiers. Italy qualified for the men’s T20 World Cup for the first time.

India are the defending champions having won the previous edition.