T20 World Cup 2026 Dream Champion Playing 11 for Team India
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma to open in our dream best playing 11 for Team India for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026.
2026. Yes, that’s the year the Indian team will be entering with a chance to make history. Never has any team in the history of the T20 World Cup been able to win back-to-back championships. But the Indian team has this opportunity after they were able win the 2024 T20 World Cup. What’s more, the Indian team will be playing the T20 World Cup at home, which will only improve their confidence to defend the title.
But does the Indian team have the players to be able to defend the title successfully? Well, the 2025 Indian Premier League has certainly shown what kind of depth we have in terms of talent. Be it aged 14, 17, 20, 30, or more, India have quality talent across the age bracket. This is extremely positive news for the team management as it will only improve their confidence in the team’s overall strength.
While the T20 World Cup is still 6-7 months away, what we have seen in the last 1-2 years in T20Is, along with the performance in the Indian Premier League, we know for sure which players are likely to feature in the Indian T20I team. While a T20 World Cup has a squad of 15 players, there’s already a core of 7-8 players that will play the 2026 World Cup without a doubt. So, let’s analyse the complete depth of the Indian team, and find out the Dream playing 11 that will help Team India win the 2026 T20 World Cup.
ICC T20 World Cup 2026 Team India Predicted 15 Players Squad List
Batters: Rinku Singh, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma & Yashasvi Jaiswal
WKs: Rishabh Pant & Sanju Samson
All-rounders: Abhishek Sharma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya & Washington Sundar
Bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav & Varun Chakravarthy
Team India T20 World Cup 2026 Best Playing 11 Explained
The first question that we have in hand is who opens the batting for Team India? It’s a very important question, as this is an area where we have many options at hand. Among the probable contenders, we have Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, and Shubman Gill. These four batters seem to be in line to open the batting. But among the two, we should mostly see Abhishek Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal as openers with Sanju Samson batting at 3.
Both Abhishek and Yashasvi are aggressive openers, and are in solid form in the IPL. While Yashasvi hasn’t featured in T20Is off-late, that’s primarily because of his Test match workload. But expect Yashasvi to feature in the starting 11 going forward. Abhishek and Sanju are already proving what they can do in T20Is. They have been in terrific form, and have been performing consistently at the big stage.
With a solid top-order, for the middle-order, we should see Suryakumar Yadav at 4 as a confirmed candidate. But for number 5, India has many options in the form of Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, and Shivam Dube. But who among these seems the best fit for the number 5 position? Well, Shivam Dube isn’t a bad option for this position, but given the form Tilak Varma has been in Internationals, he can be a solid batter for this position. Of course, his contribution has been more in the top-order, but with the need of the team in the middle-order, number 5 isn’t a bad position to play.
Focus on Batting Depth for Team India
Now, coming to the finishers, Team India will have three names to fit the bill. While Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel are almost fixed with their position, expect India to play Washington Sundar at number 8 to not only add a bowling option, but also gives India a good batting depth. This is almost like replicating the 2024 T20 World Cup, where India had Ravindra Jadeja at 8 to provide the batting depth.
Coming to the bowling lineup, India should once again opt for 6 bowling options with three being pacers and 3 being spinners. Among pacers, we should see Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh leading the bowling with support from Hardik Pandya. Whereas in the spin department, we should see Varun Chakravarthy leading the bowling with support from Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. It’s a great bowling setup for India, and almost ideal to win the championship.
T20 World Cup 2026 Dream Champion Playing 11 for Team India
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Abhishek Sharma
- Sanju Samson (wk)
- Suryakumar Yadav (c)
- Tilak Varma
- Hardik Pandya
- Axar Patel
- Washington Sundar
- Arshdeep Singh
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Varun Chakravarthy
Now, the above-mentioned playing 11 seems ideal to win the Championship. But India may also look for an alternate playing 11 where we see Shivam Dube in place of Tilak at 5, or probably Nitish Reddy in place of Washington Sundar, and have Abhishek and Nitish being used as a sixth bowler. There are some permutations and combinations that India can play along, but the one shared above seems ideal to win the T20 World Cup 2026 championship.
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