India National Cricket Team vs United States National Cricket Team Match: United States captain Monank Patel won the toss and chose to field against defending champion India in their ICC T20 World Cup opener at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, February 7, 2026. India began its campaign aiming to become the first team to defend a T20 World Cup title. The USA side entered the match with confidence after reaching the Super 8 stage in the 2024 edition, including a win over Pakistan and competitive matches against India and South Africa.
“We're going to bowl first. Looks like a really good surface. It's known to be a high-scoring ground and once we know the target it will be easy for us to plan it out. Firstly it's a great feeling to be playing here in Wankhede. World Cup is one of the biggest stages in world sport. We carry a lot of expectations and hopes from the US so we want to perform well and do our best. It's a dream come true for a lot of players. We started our cricketing careers in India, and now playing the World Cup representing USA, it's a great feeling. We played a couple of warmup games at the DY patil and we had a good run there. Looks like everyone is confident and looking forward to this game. We have 6 batters, 2 all rounders and 3 bowlers,” Monank said at the toss.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav said his side had also preferred to bat first. He confirmed that wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, all-rounder Washington Sundar and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah were unavailable. Mohammed Siraj, who replaced the injured Harshit Rana in the squad, was included in the starting XI. Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan opened the innings.
“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," SKY said.
India vs USA, T20 World Cup 2026 Playing XIs
United States of America (Playing XI): Andries Gous(w), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Monank Patel(c), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Shubham Ranjane, Harmeet Singh, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar
India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy
