NEW DELHI: The Indian team squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 and the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand in January will be announced by skipper Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday. India has been placed in Group A alongside Namibia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States, and will begin its campaign against the USA on February 7 in Mumbai.Star performersThe star opener Abhishek Sharma appears to be a guaranteed starter, following a dream run in T20 cricket this year across franchises and the national team. Sharma has scored 825 runs in 20 matches at an average of 43.42 and a strike rate above 195, including a century, five fifties, and a best of 135.

The leadership duo of captain Suryakumar Yadav and vice-captain Shubman Gill is expected to retain their spots despite a challenging year. Suryakumar has managed 213 runs in 18 innings at an average of 14.20 with no fifties, while Gill has scored 291 runs in 15 innings at an average of 24.25 and remains without a fifty since his T20I return.Tilak Varma, who impressed in the Asia Cup final against Pakistan and has excelled in run-chases and at number three, is also a likely pick. He has scored 494 runs in T20Is this year at an average of 44.90 with three fifties, and his ability to switch gears between anchoring and attacking makes him a key asset.Wicketkeeping optionsOpener Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma could be the wicketkeeping options, depending on team combination and form. Ishan Kishan, having just won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and finishing as the leading run-scorer with 517 runs in 10 innings, could also be considered.All-rounders and bowlersAll-rounders Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar provide depth in both batting and bowling. Kuldeep Yadav could be the sole specialist spinner, supported by Sundar and Axar. The pace attack is expected to be led by Jasprit Bumrah, with youngsters Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as additional options.Fan favourites like Rinku Singh and Yashasvi Jaiswal, currently outside the T20I setup, may also be considered.

India T20 World Cup 2026 squad announcement: Time, date and live streaming details

WHENIndia’s squad for the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be revealed at 1:30 pm IST on Saturday, December 20, with Ajit Agarkar and Suryakumar Yadav addressing the media.WHEREThe announcement will be made at the BCCI headquarters, located within the Wankhede Stadium complex in Mumbai.LIVE STREAMING DETAILSFans can watch the announcement live on the Star Sports Network, while online viewers can stream it on JioHotstar website and app.

NEW DELHI: India all-rounder Hardik Pandya produced a blistering display of power-hitting to lead India to a commanding 30-run victory over South Africa in the fifth and final T20I in Ahmedabad on Friday, sealing the five-match series 3-1. Pandya’s explosive knock set the tone as India piled up a daunting 231 for 5.Pandya smashed a 16-ball half-century — the second-fastest by an Indian in T20 internationals — on his way to a stunning 63 off just 25 deliveries. His innings was laced with five boundaries and five towering sixes.

The carnage was complemented by Tilak Varma, who continued his rich vein of form with a fluent 73. Together, the duo stitched a punishing 105-run partnership for the fourth wicket that completely wrested momentum away from the visitors.One of Pandya’s massive sixes led to an unexpected moment off the field when the ball struck a cameraman stationed near the boundary. Showing concern beyond the contest, Pandya immediately walked up to check on the cameraman’s well-being after his innings, ensuring he was attended to and even helping apply an ice pack. Pandya also hugged the cameraman, a gesture that quickly went viral and earned widespread praise from fans.In reply, South Africa began positively and remained in the chase as long as Quinton de Kock was at the crease. The left-hander scored a fighting 65, but once he was dismissed, the innings unravelled rapidly. Varun Chakravarthy spun a web around the middle order, claiming four wickets as South Africa lost seven wickets for 81 runs to finish on 201 for 8.Pandya’s all-round impact and match-defining innings earned him the Player of the Match award.“Winning games is what you play for and it’s always exciting when your contribution helps the team get over the line. No, I actually didn’t know (he has the second fastest fifty for India) until I got out and went back. Our social media guys told me I was the second-fastest,” Pandya said. Watch the video here“My first reaction was, “Ah, I missed the top spot!” But happy that Yuvi pa holds that record. Today I just felt it. I actually told my partner beforehand that I was going to step out first ball and try to hit it for six. I was confident it would come off,” he said. “The situation suited my style; I backed myself and it worked. I took a calculated risk and thankfully it went my way. I’ve always enjoyed the challenge. No matter how many setbacks you face, the aim is to come back stronger, better, and make a bigger impact. When it all comes together, it feels satisfying. But the journey continues – the preparation, the planning, the hard work never stops,” Pandya said.

Ashes Live, Australia vs England 3rd Test: Travis Head struck a commanding 170 and Alex Carey chipped in with 72 as Australia were bowled out for 349 in their second innings on Saturday, setting England a daunting record target of 435 to keep the Ashes alive at the Adelaide Oval.

England wrapped up the innings before lunch, claiming six wickets in the morning session, but endured an early setback when they came out to bat. With just 10 minutes remaining before the interval, Ben Duckett fell in the second over, edging Pat Cummins to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip for four.

At lunch, England were 5 for 1, with Ollie Pope unbeaten on one and Zak Crawley yet to open his account.

England must win the match to stay alive in the five-Test series after heavy defeats by eight wickets in Perth and Brisbane. Australia, the holders, require only a draw to retain the Ashes.

Ben Stokes’s side face an enormous challenge in chasing 435, a target never achieved at the Adelaide Oval, where the highest successful run chase is 316. The biggest chase in Test history remains the West Indies’ 418 against Australia at St John’s in 2003.

Australia had resumed on 271 for 4, with Head on 142 and Carey unbeaten on 52, and the pair once again made early hay against some wayward bowling. Stokes, who did not bowl on Friday after assistant coach Jeetan Patel said he was “knackered” following a gritty 83 with the bat, opened the attack on Saturday.

Head quickly moved into top gear, reaching his 150 off 205 balls with a cut through backward point, drawing a standing ovation from the home crowd. Chasing a maiden Test double hundred, he continued to attack before pulling a short ball from Josh Tongue to Zak Crawley, who held the catch in the deep under the glaring sun.

Carey added 20 to his overnight score as he eyed back-to-back centuries following his emotional first-innings 106, but was caught at leg slip by Harry Brook off Stokes. Josh Inglis soon followed, edging Tongue to Jamie Smith behind the stumps.

With the new ball taken, Brook grabbed another slip catch to dismiss Pat Cummins for six off Brydon Carse, who then trapped Nathan Lyon lbw with the very next delivery. Scott Boland was the final wicket to fall, caught and bowled cheaply by Jofra Archer, while Tongue finished as England’s most successful bowler with figures of 4 for 70.

NEW DELHI: India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Friday lit up the 5th T20I against South Africa with a powerful innings and an emotional celebration that quickly caught everyone’s attention. He smashed India’s second-fastest T20I fifty and then celebrated by blowing flying kisses towards his girlfriend, Mahieka Sharma, who was present in the stands.

The match was played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, where Hardik walked in to bat at No. 5 after captain Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed early. Having recently returned from a quadriceps injury, there were questions about his rhythm, but Hardik answered them in style. He reached his half-century in just 16 balls, making it the second-fastest T20I fifty by an Indian.As soon as he got to the milestone with a big six, Hardik turned towards the VIP stands and blew flying kisses in Mahieka’s direction. She was seen cheering loudly and smiling, clearly enjoying the moment. The gesture was caught on camera and soon went viral on social media.Watch:Hardik’s innings was full of clean hitting. He attacked the South African bowlers from the start and cleared the boundary with ease. One of his lofted shots was hit so hard that it accidentally struck a cameraman near the boundary, underlining the force behind his strokes.He stitched an important partnership with Tilak Varma, who also played a steady innings and scored a fifty of his own. Together, they pushed India to a massive total of 231 for 5, putting the hosts firmly in control of the match.With this knock, Hardik went past Abhishek Sharma’s 17-ball fifty to move into second place on the list of fastest T20I fifties by Indians. Only Yuvraj Singh’s iconic 12-ball fifty from the 2007 T20 World Cup remains ahead of him.The celebration also carried a personal touch. After his public split from Natasa Stankovic in 2024, Hardik has been more open about his life off the field.

AHMEDABAD: Former India captain Rohit Sharma, India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and allrounder Shivam Dube have not been named by the Mumbai Cricket Association in Mumbai’s squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, this doesn’t mean that all these India stars will miss the One-day Tournament, which will start from December 24. The team will be captained by India allrounder Shardul Thakur.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“All these India players will be accommodated in the Mumbai squad when they are available. If they aren’t available, it’s not right to name them in the squad and deprive a youngster of a place in the team,” Mumbai’s senior selection committee chairman Sanjay Patil told TOI, after his panel picked the squad for the tournament on Friday. Also present in the selection meeting was former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar, currently the MCA’s men’s cricket advisor.

Jaiswal, India’s Test and ODI opener, was hospitalised in Pune after suffering from a bout of acute gastroenteritis after Mumbai’s last match in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy against Rajasthan. “He will be included in the Mumbai squad once he gets clearance from the medical team,” Patil said.India play their next international series starting with the three-match ODI series against New Zealand from Jan 11, 2026 in Vadodara. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had recently made it compulsory for all the India players to feature in the Vijay Hazare Trophy when not injured or recuperating at the Centre of Excellence (CoE).Meanwhile, it’s learnt that former India and Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane has asked to be rested from the initial matches of the Mumbai team in the league stage of the tournament. “He has got a hamstring issue, and will rest and recover. He will join the Mumbai team after the first couple of matches,” Patil said.

The group stage of VHT which will be held between Dec 24, 2025 and January 8, 2026. Mumbai have been placed in Elite Group C, alongside Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Goa and will play their matches in Jaipur.The selectors have given a maiden call-up to opener Ishan Mulchandani. Young batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who managed to score just 49 runs in four matches@16.33 in the recently-held Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, was lucky to survive the axe. Prolific domestic batter Sarfaraz Khan, who was in sizzling form in SMAT, hammering 329 runs in seven matches at an average of 65.80 and a strike rate of 203.80, including three fifties and a century, is a part of the squad, and so is his younger brother, allrounder Musheer Khan.Though Mumbai failed to defend their SMAT title, failing to advance beyond the Super League Stage, Patil was quite pleased with the team’s performance in the T20 tournament. “I’m quite happy with our performance. We won eight out of our 10 matches, which means that we played some good cricket. Everyone played well, especially Sarfaraz Khan. It’s just that we suffered badly due to the Net Run Rate Rule,” Patil said. Mumbai won two out of their three matches in the Super League stage, but crashed out as their NRR was inferior to the other teams.According to the rules of the tournament, the NRR was counted from scratch for the Super League. And, after three Super League games, if multiple teams were on equal points, then instead of looking at the head-to-head figures, the NRR was taken into consideration.

NEW DELHI: “What this tells me is that we do love the sport, but perhaps not enough to support own players,” wrote India international and FC Goa’s Sandesh Jhingan on Instagram. That perfectly encapsulates the state of football, and our society to a huge degree, in the past week.As Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul’s three day tour of India wrapped up, having covered Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi, with tens of thousands filling up stadiums in each city. Rs 100s of crores were spent by the organisers in bringing the trio to the country. Another tens of crores were spent by the fans to get their glimpse. More, or equivalent, were spent by the sponsors, corporates and broadcasters.

Droves of politicians, corporate honchos and celebrities posed alongside Messi for their moment of social media fame. Cringeworthy videos did the rounds as office bearers, spouse of a state CM and anyone with any clout, desperately looked to get within inches of the magician for their Instagram cred.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!One doesn’t need to go far to look for irony. Bhaichung Bhutia, former India captain and a legend of Indian football, struggled to get inside the stadium in New Delhi, despite being an official guest. As one security official after another failed to recognise him, it only took a late phone call for the man who made 84 India appearances to be brought to the stage.

The irony doesn’t end there. With organisers, sponsors, fans, broadcasters all spending big bucks on this tour, a month back, a Request For Proposal (RFP) floated by the All India Football Federation for the Indian Super League — which sought an annual payment of Rs 37.5 crore — didn’t find any takers. Neither did anyone step up for the I-League, the second tier, with an annual payment requirement of Rs 4 crore.Equally ironically, two of the sponsors of the G.O.A.T. Tour – JSW and RPSG Group – are losing amid this logjam in Indian football. Their top bosses had a meet-and-greet with the Argentine, all while their ISL clubs – Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giant – are facing uncertainty over their futures.As things stand, there is no timeline on the start of the ISL or the I-League seasons. In the latest meeting with the Sports Ministry and the AIFF, ISL clubs suggested a “financial reset” to get the ball – quite literally – rolling again. The clubs said player salaries, officially capped at Rs 16.5 crore, but breached unofficially, need to be revised.

Fans spent upwards of Rs 4000 to get a chance of watching Messi walk, wave, say a few words in Spanish. In contrast, the tickets for an ISL game hover between Rs 100-300 and yet the attendances are dropping. Much like the ranking of the Indian national team but that’s a different, extremely depressing, topic.ISL clubs, which spend approximately Rs 60 crore a year, and suffer losses to the tune of Rs 25 crore, are already bleeding with no active football and no clarity of when it will even resume. “Team owners are hanging on to hope while bleeding finances dry. How is this even a reward for backing a sport that not many would touch?,” wrote Bengaluru FC Director of Football Darren Caldeira.The same amount of fan attendance or sponsorship spends could have funded multiple clubs. Alas it went on a ‘sporting event’, where the football was barely kicked. Where Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul were treated as sidekicks. Where Sunil Chhetri, India’s top scorer ever, got fewer headlines than Sachin Tendulkar. Therein, perhaps, lies the great tragedy. But, again, that is a larger, deeper conversation.For now, Messi is gone. Everyone’s gotten their photos and videos to circulate for months at end. The euphoria will subside. Everyone will move on, except Indian football. That, for a myriad of reasons, has hit a roadblock. “I hope this occasion sparks a deeper conversation not just about loving football, but about sustaining it at home,” added Jhinghan in his Instagram note.

To say there is no interest in football, or purchasing power for Indian fans, is inaccurate. And this Messi tour has made it abundantly clear. Unfortunately, there are no takers of Indian football. Maybe, Indian football is not sexy enough for the social media cred of our politicians, celebrities and sponsors.

It took Hardik Pandya one ball to announce himself in Ahmedabad. The bat came down in a full arc, the ball went up and over, and somewhere beyond the rope a cameraman found himself part of the moment. Ahmedabad had barely settled when Pandya, walking in mid-innings, turned the fifth T20I on Friday into a reminder of how quickly a game can change when he decides to intervene.Walking in during the 13th over, the all-rounder hit a six off his first ball, which also struck a cameraman standing at long-off.

Pandya came in after India captain Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed for five off seven balls on the first delivery of the 13th over. Yadav was caught by David Miller off the bowling of Corbin Bosch.Facing his first ball, a length delivery outside off from Bosch, Pandya walked down the pitch and hit a lofted drive for six. The shot went to long-off and struck the cameraman, who was later attended to by the Indian team physio.In the following over, Pandya took on George Linde, hitting three sixes and two fours to collect 27 runs from the over.

Second-fastest T20I fifty for India

Pandya brought up his half-century in just 16 balls, the second-fastest fifty for India in T20 internationals after Yuvraj Singh’s 12-ball effort.He was eventually dismissed at 63 off just 25 balls, hitting 5 sixes and as many fours in his innings. India scored a massive 231 for 5 in the 20 overs. Earlier, South Africa captain Aiden Markram won the toss and chose to bowl in the fifth and final T20I. The visitors made one change, bringing in spin all-rounder George Linde in place of fast bowler Anrich Nortje.India brought back Jasprit Bumrah, who had missed the third T20I in Dharamsala due to personal reasons, replacing Harshit Rana. Washington Sundar came in for Kuldeep Yadav.Sanju Samson was named in the XI in place of vice-captain Shubman Gill, who was ruled out of the final two matches due to a toe injury.

NEW DELHI: An unusual and worrying moment unfolded during the fifth T20I between India and South Africa when on-field umpire Rohan Pandit was struck by a powerful shot from Sanju Samson, forcing a brief pause in play. The incident occurred in the ninth over of India’s innings and left players and spectators concerned.The moment came on ball 8.4, bowled by South Africa’s Donovan Ferreira. Samson, in fine form, stepped back and hit a full delivery straight down the ground with force. Ferreira attempted to take the return catch, but the ball burst through his hands and deflected sharply towards the umpire standing behind the bowler. The ball struck Rohan Pandit on the knee, leaving him in visible pain.

Pandit immediately walked away from his position before going down on the field as the ball trickled towards long-on. Medical staff quickly attended to the umpire. Watch:Players from both teams checked on his condition. Play was halted briefly to ensure he was fit to continue. Despite the initial pain and agony on his face, the magic spray worked as he continued.Before the interruption, India were cruising after South Africa chose to bowl first. At the time of the incident, India were 95 for 1 in 8.4 overs, scoring at nearly 11 runs per over. Samson was still on the crease with 36 off 20 balls, striking four boundaries and two sixes. Tilak Varma was also batting fluently on 21 off 11 balls after Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for a quick 34 off 21 deliveries.India had made full use of the Powerplay, racing to 67 runs in the first six overs. South Africa kept rotating their bowlers, but it couldn’t stop the strong start. Corbin Bosch had the only wicket so far.Coming into the match, India were already leading the five-match series 2-1. The hosts looked determined to press their advantage. The incident involving the umpire, however, became the talking point of the evening.