Captain Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar. FIle
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
BCCI on Saturday (December 20, 2025) announced the team for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2026 to be held in India from February 27, 2026.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and captain Suryakumar announced the team during the press conference in Mumbai.
Indian Test captain Shubman Gill and Jitesh Sharma have been dropped from the squad. BCCI also announced that Ishan Kishan and Rinku Singh have been included into the squad in their place.
Axar Patel has been named as the vice-captain of the team.
Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar admitted that Gill has been dropped from the squad for lack of runs.
Speaking about the decision to drop Gill, chief selector Ajit Agarkar said “We’re looking at continuity, we want a keeper batting at the top.”
Agarkar added “We know what a quality player Shubman is even though he’s not found runs recently. It’s the combination more than anything else. It’s more about combinations, someone has to miss out.”
“He bats at the top in white-ball cricket and he’s been in good form,” Agarkar said on Ishan Kishan. “We felt a keeper at the top gives us more combinations.”
T20 India squad
Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-captain), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep SIngh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarty, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk)
Published – December 20, 2025 02:28 pm IST
