Rohit Sharma highlights India's 'biggest challenge' heading into T20 World Cup

Defending champions Team India head into the 2026 T20 World Cup as the favourites to retain their title. They have maintained a stunning form in the format and have not lost a series for quite some time now, making them a force to be reckoned with. They have been dominant in the ongoing assignment against New Zealand and have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Rohit highlights the challenge for India

However, former India captain Rohit Sharma believes that the team's path in the T20 World Cup isn't going to be as smooth as it may appear to be. He feels that the team management will want to pick both Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy in the playing XI, but will find it hard to form a proper bowling combination with them. He labelled this as their "biggest challenge" going into the tournament.

“The biggest challenge for captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir will be how to play both Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy together. If you want that combination, you can only do it if you play with two seamers, which is a big challenge,” Rohit Sharma said on Hotstar.

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Rohit further said that it will be hard for Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir to come up with a fixed playing XI for the T20 World Cup as leaving out any player can turn out to be a costly move. With several players in the team currently being in top form, it will be hard for the team management to shuffle the XI and make changes regularly.

“Looking at conditions in India, like in this New Zealand series, there is a lot of dew. In February and March, dew will be heavy across most parts as winter ends. Even in Mumbai, which doesn’t get cold, there’s still dew. I’d say 90-95% of grounds in India have dew. That’s the challenge,” Rohit stated.

“What do the coach and captain think? Are they comfortable with three spinners? Then they can play spin, but there’s no fixed rule. You have to drop a pacer, which may not be right. It depends on the thinking of the team leadership,” he concluded.

India to face USA in their opening game

Meanwhile, India have been placed in Group A of the T20 World Cup alongside the likes of Namibia, Netherlands, Pakistan and USA. They willl begin their campaign with the clash against USA on February 7 at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

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