There are a lot of talkings going on about the squad BCCI picked for the T20 World Cup which will start from February, 2026. Another intersting this is that, the board did not pick any stand-by player for the tournament.
Why there is no stand-by players in the T20 World Cup squad of India?
The Indian team for the T20 World Cup 2026 has been announced. A 15-member squad has been announced under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav. Shubman Gill has been dropped from the team. BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia announced the squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 as well as the 5-match T20 series against New Zealand in a press conference. The same team from the T20 World Cup will play in the New Zealand series as well. Indian team captain Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar were also present on this occasion.
When teams are selected for ICC events, standby or reserve players are also included. Now, if a player gets injured during the tournament, backup players are selected to replace them. In the last T20 World Cup, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, and Avesh Khan were standby players along with Shubman Gill. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj, and Shivam Dube were selected as standbys for the Champions Trophy.
During the press conference, BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia explained why standby players were not selected for the T20 World Cup. He said that since it is a domestic tournament, he did not want to name any specific standby player. If the tournament is held in India, any player can be included in the team if needed. When the tournament is held abroad, it takes a lot of time to send players from here.
India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026:
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy.