BCCI has announced the 15-member Indian squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Many big stars including Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are missing from this team. Another surprising thing in this squad is that BCCI has not kept the option of reserve or stand-by players open. BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia himself has told why Team India has not declared stand-by players for the World Cup.
Why are there no stand-by players?
On there being no stand-by player for the T20 World Cup 2026, BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia said, “Since the tournament is being organized in our country, we can declare replacement of any player if needed. That is why we have not announced any reserve player.”
Usually BCCI declares reserve players or stand-by players for any big tournament. Its purpose is that if any player is unable to continue the game during the tournament due to injury or any other reason, then his replacement can be taken from among the reserve players. If the World Cup was being held abroad, BCCI could have announced reserve players to avoid any travel related hurdles, but next year the T20 World Cup will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
Indian squad for T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel (vice-captain), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakraborty, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper).
India’s schedule for T20 World Cup 2026
A total of 20 teams will be participating in the T20 World Cup 2026. India has been placed in Group A along with Pakistan, Namibia, Netherlands and USA.
- 7 February – India vs USA
- 12 February – India vs Namibia
- 15 February – India vs Pakistan
- 18 February – India vs Netherlands
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