Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir has made a bold claim on India’s chances of reaching the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-finals. He believes that India will fail to qualify for the semi-finals and backed South Africa and West Indies to advance.
India, the defending champions, qualified for the Super 8 stage from Group A along with Pakistan.
The Men in Blue have been placed in Group 1 along with South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe, whereas Pakistan are in Group 2 along with England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The Suryakumar Yadav-led side had beaten Pakistan by 61 runs when the two teams locked horns in Colombo on 15 February.
India finished on top of Group A with eight points from four games, thus maintaining a 100% win record so far. However, the hosts have suffered batting collapses in a few matches already. Against the USA, India were restricted to 77/6 at one point, and managed to post only a total of 161/9 from 20 overs.
And although India did score 209/9 against Namibia, it could have been a much bigger total had it not been for their middle-order batting collapse. In that match, among middle-order batsmen, only Hardik Pandya was able to convert a start as he scored 52 runs from 28 balls.
“If you see their matches, the batting collapsed in all the games, barring the Pakistan contest. The pressure will rise in the Super 8 matches. The way in which South Africa and the West Indies have been playing, they can beat any team,” Amir said during an episode of the Harna Mana Hai YouTube show.
India opener Abhishek Sharma has endured a forgettable T20 World Cup campaign so far. While he missed the match against Namibia due to a stomach bug, the Punjab cricketer has been dismissed for ducks in each of the other three games (vs the USA, Pakistan and the Netherlands).
Abhishek has come under criticism from Amir and has even been termed as “just a slogger”.
Abhishek was in fine form before the T20 World Cup, having scored two half-centuries in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand in January this year.
“If you ask me honestly, by whatever little I have seen, I feel he is just a slogger. He has to go hard at every ball. The day he gets going, it’s fine; otherwise, uske failure ke chances zyaada hain (The chances of his failure are high),” Amir had said.
In the Super 8 stage, India will first lock horns with South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday (22 February), before traveling to Chennai to take on Zimbabwe four days later. India and West Indies will then face off in Kolkata on 1 March in their final Super 8 match.
