New Delhi: India suffered a dramatic batting collapse in their T20 World Cup 2026 opener against USA at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, February.
After Sanju Samson was dropped, openers Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan both flopped in the opener as the two left-handers were dismissed cheaply.
While Abhishek was sent packing on a Golden Duck, Kishan managed only 20 off 16 balls. Samson’s exclusion was on expected lines after he failed to take his chances during the recently concluded T20I series against New Zealand at home, managing only 46 runs in 5 matches. He was replaced by in-form Kishan, who also opened for India in their warm-up game against South Africa earlier this week.
In Samson’s absence, the destructive opening pairing of Kishan and Abhishek was touted to set the ball rolling against USA. However, that wasn’t the case as both openers failed to make an impact. India got off to a poor start after being asked to bat first in the game, as Abhishek got dismissed on a first-ball duck by pacer Ali Khan after getting caught by Sanjay Krishnamurthi.
Kishan, who appeared to be struggling to middle the ball, managed to find some rhythm but was sent packing on 20 off 16 balls by pacer Shadley van Schalkwyk in the final over of the Powerplay. Van Schalkwyk piled more misery on India by dismissing Tilak Varma (25) and Shivam Dube on a duck in consecutive deliveries in the same over.
Shadley van Schalkwyk’s triple strikes rock India
Pacer Van Schalkwyk’s triple strikes in the sixth over reduced India to tatters. The right-arm speedster got rid of Kishan on the second ball before dismissing Tilak and Dube on back-to-back deliveries to leave India reeling on 46/4 inside six overs. India’s woes were left exposed after the hosts lost Rinku Singh (6) and Hardik Pandya (5) in quick succession to get reduced to 77/6 in the 13th over.
It has been a disappointing batting performance from the defending champions, who headed into the tournament on the back of a dominant run in the shortest format. With the kind of firepower India have in their ranks, the expectations were high from the Men in Blue against minnows USA, however, the visitors bowled exceptionally well to put the defending champions under pressure in their first game of the tournament.
