The 2026 edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be played from February 7 to March 8. A total of 20 teams will feature in this year’s edition of the shortest format mega-event, the matches of which
are scheduled to take place across five venues in India and three in Sri Lanka. Ahead of the start of India’s title defence in the T20 World Cup, former Indian cricketers like Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Mohammad Kaif, Aakash Chopra, Anil Kumble, Sanjay Bangar and Cheteshwar Pujara have made their predictions for India’s top run scorer in the upcoming tournament.
According to Raina, Pathan and Uthappa, India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav will finish the tournament as the highest run-getter among Indian batters.
“India’s captain, World Cup captain, Surya Kumar Yadav,” Raina said on Star Sports when asked, “Who will be India’s top run scorer in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026?”
Who could dominate the run charts at the ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup 2026? 🤔
Top prediction by experts. 📝
Comment down your predictions! ⬇️💭
ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup 2026 👉 Starts FEB 7 pic.twitter.com/4pffLjrk9a
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 27, 2026
Pathan, who won the Player Of The Match (POTM) award in the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup, also voted for Surya by saying, “I really bank on Surya Kumar Yadav.”
But according to Kaif and Bangar, middle-order batter Tilak Varma will top the run scorers list for India, whereas Chopra, Kumble and Pujara have cast their vote in favour of world No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma.
Abhishek, who was India’s highest run scorer in T20Is in 2025, has slammed two half-centuries in three T20I matches played so far in 2026. In the first T20I against New Zealand in Nagpur on January 21, the left-handed batter scored 84 runs from just 35 balls, and in the third T20I on January 25, he played a knock of an unbeaten 68 runs from 20 balls.
Surya, who will captain India in the T20 World Cup 2026, also has been in red-hot form these days. He scored 32 runs from 22 balls in the first T20I against New Zealand and then remained unbeaten on 82 and 57 in the next two matches played on January 23 and 25 respectively.
