Axar Patel Appointed India's Vice-Captain For T20 World Cup 2026

Star all-rounder Axar Patel will be Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy in the T20 World Cup 2026. The Gujarat-based all-rounder, who also captains Delhi Capitals in the IPL, was appointed as India’s vice-captain for the T20 World Cup 2026 on Saturday (December 20) when BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia announced India’s squad for the 20-team tournament, which will be played from February 7 to March 8.

Axar, who was also the vice-captain of Team India during the five-match T20I series against England earlier this year, got the vice-captaincy role after BCCI selectors decided to drop Shubman Gill for the shortest format mega-event. Gill was India’s vice-captain in the Asia Cup 2025, but he is not picked for the T20 World Cup 2026 along with wicketkeeper-batter

Jitesh Sharma.

Rinku Singh is back in Team India along with wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who last played for the Men in Blue in December 2023.

“We know what a quality player he (Gill) is, but, perhaps short of a little bit of runs at the moment,” said chief selector Ajit Agarkar in the press conference for India’s squad announcement.

“It’s unfortunate to have missed out in the last World Cup as well because we went with different combinations. But it’s the combinations more than anything else…Someone has to miss out when you pick 15 and unfortunately, it’s Gill at this point,” Agarkar added.

Agarkar stressed that they wanted to have an extra keeper at the top, and had to sacrifice a pure batter for that.

“We are looking at the combination. If the keeper is going to bat at the top, at the moment Jitesh is there and he has not done too much wrong. But we need to look at the combination and a keeper at the top,” said the former India pacer.

India skipper Suryakumar Yadav too hinted at the necessity of combination as the reason behind Gills’ omission.

“Post T20 WC (2024) we went to Sri Lanka and we had scored 200 and Gill was part of it. We wanted to have a keeper at the top and Rinku or Washy (down the order), which is why we have an extra keeper at the top. There is no question of (Gill’s) form,” said Suryakumar.

India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan