🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026: M3: IND vs USA at Mumbai on 07/02/26🏏 - Page 5

The USA were impressive the last time they played the World Cup. They stunned Pakistan, ran South Africa close and showed good skill. It will be homecoming literally for some of their players. Shubham Ranjane, Milind Kumar, Harmeet Singh and Saurabh Netravalkar - some of them have played for Mumbai, some for Delhi and other teams and some have even played at the Wankhede before. The entire team will reaching out to these players for knowledge transfer of how to go about business here. Playing India in a World Cup game in India is going to be pretty special for them.

It just doesn't stop with the bat though. Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh have formed an incredible combo at the death to put India as one of the best bowling attacks in the final 4-5 overs in T20Is these days. Varun Chakaravarthy tortures teams through the middle overs, in fact any phase, with his mystery and if India somehow find a combo that can fit Kuldeep Yadav as well, it gets even tougher for the opponents. With bat, the power, the ball and the skill, it's a well-oiled machine that's ready to vroom.

Hardik Pandya is a beast now. Walks out with swag, attacks the first ball he faces and ignites the crowd instantly. He is in some incredible, clean-hitting form. He offers an over or two in the powerplay and at a later stage as well. Shivam Dube - a well known spin basher. Teams have tried to use the short ball but he's found a way for it as well to extend India's power in the finisher's department. Nowadays he is adamant of taking at least one wicket every time he bowls as well.

Tilak Varma and SKY at No.3 and 4. Tilak is a mix of audacity and tenacity. He can take on the bowlers at will, even target spinners and hold one end tight if needed. SKY had a miserable run of form until the recently concluded New Zealand series. He kept talking about hitting the ball well in nets even when the runs weren't there to show in matches. He said that with a smile too. People trolled him. Questioned him as leader. But that smile showed how mentally strong he was even in that lengthy lean period and eventually proved his words right by getting the touch back against the Blackcaps.

India have a method to their madness too. They unleash Abhishek Sharma right at the top. Give him a list of the best bowlers in the opposition and he will make sure to step out and hit out each one of them every single game. Ishan Kishan has kicked the selection door open by bulldozing his way through domestic cricket. The look in his eyes clearly tells, he's determined to do something special. These two batters have very poor memory of taking singles because the moment they bring the bat down they want to clear the infield.

Ian Smith inspired us all with this gem on air with the official broadcaster when Suryakumar Yadav took that sensational catch in the final over of the World Cup final to swing it India's way two years ago in Barbados. Now the Indian team is in those very safe hands and he's put together a bunch of bullies the world fears like never before. Never before has the World Cup been won by the defending champions. And never before has the host nation won a World Cup. SKY and Co. have a great chance to become pioneers. They start as clear favourites, but the ride won't be easy.

India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakravarthy

Originally posted by: Savera84

India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakravarthy

As anticipated, Bumrah won’t be playing today’s game. India needs some additional luck, even though are facing a team like USA

India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

Suryakumar Yadav | India captain: We were looking to bat first. It looks good here. I played a lot of cricket here. There's a wind around as well, so I don't think there'll be a lot of dew later on. Of course there'll be a little bit of pressure. We can't run away from that fact, but then new tournament, we want to play the same way how we've been playing in the last one or two years and continue the same thing. It's live before the game starts and I'm sure when we start batting, it will be more wilder. We have Washington Sundar missing out, Sanju Samson missing out. Unfortunately Jasprit Bumrah is not well so Mohammed Siraj is playing.

Monank Patel | USA captain: We are going to bowl first. Looks a good surface. High-scoring ground, so we will look to hunt it down. World Cup is one of the biggest stages for us. Lot of expectations from the US so we will look to do well. We played a couple of warmup games at the DY patil and we had a good run there. We have 6 batters, 2 all rounders and 3 bowlers.

United States of America have won the toss and have opted to field

Why haven't they announced USA team yet?

Did they get confused with Indian names?

USA XI: Saiteja Mukkamalla, Andries Gous (wk), Monank Patel (capt), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Harmeet Singh, Shubham Ranjane, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan.

USA XI: Saiteja Mukkamalla, Andries Gous (wk), Monank Patel (capt), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Harmeet Singh, Shubham Ranjane, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan

Finally!

Originally posted by: Savera84

Why haven't they announced USA team yet?

Did they get confused with Indian names?

I thought the same thing I thought something is wrong with my internet — turns out the playing XI has been announced but website is slow in releasing it

Pitch and conditions: This pitch is pitch 8. It was used in the RCB against Mumbai in the IPL April last year. It's an absolute belter. I reckon the bowlers will have to run for the covers after a certain point because you see the grass on this wicket, it's got a little bit of time to rest. Generally, the Mumbai wicket doesn't get a lot of time to rest and this one's actually got a little bit of time. That's why you see the grass cover on top. That's going to have a little bit of aid for the fast bowlers initially with the new ball. But once that's done, it's going to be runs galore. And spinners won't get much purchase out of it. In the USA side, they have two players who know what this pitch is all about. There's Shubham Ranjane, there's Saurabh Nityawalkar, and then there's Harmeet Singh. All who've played cricket in Mumbai, grown up here, so they have information about the wicket, but they can do little with how good this wicket is going to be for the batters. So they will be very wary of how many runs are going to be scored on this wicket. The batters are going to try and hit it as far as they possibly can. There will be very little spin. There will be decent amount of a bounce, but not much spin. The curator here says he likes to produce sporty pitches. I don't know if this is sporty. I reckon the batters will be lining up and trying to belt it out of the park. - Nick Knight, Robin Uthappa.

Thanks for the tag Savera

All the best to team India & USA

Bleed blue 💙