India vs USA highlights, T20 World Cup 2026: IND beat USA by 29 runs in Mumbai

See, I knew definitely someday it was going to come. Last whole year, I was trying to bat in such a way, hold the innings for the team, but it wasn't happening. But then I left it alone after I played the last series of last year against South Africa. Packed my kit bag, spent a lot of time with family for two weeks. Then started in the new year and when we went to Nagpur, it was a different feeling altogether. (plans when the team were 77/6) I always felt that there was a need for a batter to bat till the end. I never felt that it was a 180-190 wicket. I felt it was a 140 wicket. But then Gauti bhai told me the same thing during the break after the 14 overs. He told me, just try and bat till the end, you can cover it any time. And also, most important thing, I have played a lot of my cricket in Bombay, this wicket and also maidans of Mumbai cricket. So I know how to bat on similar kind of wickets. (on adapting to the pitch) Absolutely. I mean, 77 for 6 and then from there, batting till the end. You had to understand that one batter had to bat till the end. I just kept counting who was about to bowl at that time and checked on how many balls were left and I was just trying to play good shots and my shots.

It was a delivery dug into the surface, and Moshin tried to hoik one on the leg-side, which ended up giving a simple catch to the cow-corner fielder there. It has been a good spell from Arshdeep altough he has only two wickets to show for it. He did bowl pretty well. He got the swing going early on and is now digging a few into the surface. India's next go to Delhi, where he might find different conditions to work with. But today he has been good and is done for the day. Two overs remaining in the game, one would expect India to take all the points from this situation.

The USA are hanging in there. If that wicket of Milind had not happened, they would have been in a better position, but they still have a set batter in Sanjay, who is picking his bowlers and scoring some nice boundaries and trying to keep that rate manageable. He will need a cameo from the other end to make things intresting a 10-ball 25 of sorts. Varun has one over left, and Sanjay will be aware of it. They will know the USA India does not have Bumrah today, so they are still pretty good but not as good, so they will try to apply that pressure and see if the Indian bowling will succumb.

Spinners are getting through their overs quickly here in the middle. Both Varun and Axar are staying at the stumps; hitting that grassy area in the pitch is not giving away too much for the batters to work with. As Robin Uthappa mentioned in the first innings during his commentary stint it is live grass and when the ball is hitting the seam it is stopping a bit and the one which are hitting the leather are skidding through which is making it even tougher to face the Indian spinners who will demand a skill set of batters to pick the ball from hand rather than lenght even on flatter wickets.

It has been a bit of a chaotic start to the USA, like it was to India in the first innings. Batting will get easier as the innings go on, but do USA batters have the pedigree to deal with the Indian spinners? Is something to be seen. The likes of Varun Chakarvarthy and Axar Patel are extremly canny bowlers and very hard to pick for the ones who have played them over the years and these USA batters would not have played them as much and it will be hard to pick espically Varun on these two-paced surface will be very hard to deal with.

Arshdeep Singh has taken the new ball, and he got both the deliveries going well, which are the inswinger and the outswinger, and Gous, who is the middle, struggled a bit to read those from the left-arm seamer. As we have mentioned earlier, there will always be a bit of swing and seam moment here in Wankhede for those who are looking to use their wrist and hit the surface hard. Suryakumar Yadav at the toss did say there would be no dew, and he is right with the breeze blowing; there is not a lot of dew. As we update, Siraj has picked up Gous.

United States of America (Playing XI): Andries Gous(w), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Monank Patel(c), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Shubham Ranjane, Harmeet Singh, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar

India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy

This is a gem of an innings from the Indian skipper. We have seen Surya score some scintillating knocks over the years, but to anchor an innings through and also maintain the tempo is something that is far and few between. One that comes to mind is the one he scored in Perth in the 2022 T20 World Cup against South Africa. As we update, Arshdeep falls.

Suryakumar Yadav has batted well here. When he came into the team was in all sorts of trouble early on, but he weathered the storm, and in the previous over against Netravalka,r he went after the bowling or showed the signs of aggression for the first time. Well, as we update, India has lost another wicket, and it is Axar Patel. He tried to hit one through the cow-corner and ended up giving a catch to the fielder, and it is Harmeet Singh, the fielder, who got the chance. India has lost seven wickets now in this game.

Since our last update, India has lost two wickets. First, it was Rinku Singh who tried to hit the ball a lot finer than it went. He could not time the ball, and it went straight to the long-on fielder. It seemed like the ball had stopped on him for a bit, and then Hermeet bowled a good length delivery, which Hardik tried to slap and once again seemed to misread the pace and ended up getting caught on cover by the fielder over there. Well, this is quite unprecedented on what is happening here. Nobody would have seen this coming.

India does seem to have been taken a bit by surprise here. The wicket is just stopping a bit, and Robin Uthappa on commentary reckons that it has to do with live grass in the surface. The oddball is skidding a bit quickly, and the oddball is stopping. This has been a feature in IPL games where, at times, teams batting first have not been able to hit as freely as we sometimes do at these venues. This might not be how this pitch will behave for all the games, but India are dragged here into a scrap, a situation which they have not faced a lot and have to get out of this rut.

It must be said USA have started well. Here, the way India has batted in recent times, we have been accustomed to getting 50 by this point and close to 90 and 100 in the first powerplay, but the linesthe USA ball bowlers bowled and the field placements they have had, it does seem like they have done their homework. Additionally, there have also been a couple of dropped catches. The first one was from Shadley, who dropped a simple return catch, and Kishan was dropped at mid-wicket inside the ring. Good bowling from the USA this.

We are done with the opening over. Netravalkar got a bit of swing in that first over, which is expected at this venue in Wankhede early on. The field placement has been pretty canny from the USA team, having that deep-square leg a bit more squarer for Ishan Kishan. It is one of his most productive areas. Regardless of that fielder being placed there, Kishan bent on one knee and smacked it over the fielder there for a six. As we update we have our first wicket Ali Khan has picked up the wicket of Abhishek Sharma.

Andries Gous(w), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Monank Patel(c), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Shubham Ranjane, Harmeet Singh, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar

We were looking to bat first. It looks good here. I played a lot of cricket here. There's a wind around as well, so I don't think there'll be a lot of dew later on. Of course there'll be a little bit of pressure. We can't run away from that fact, but then new tournament, we want to play the same way how we've been playing in the last one or two years and continue the same thing. It's live before the game starts and I'm sure when we start batting, it will be more wilder. We have Washington Sundar missing out, Sanju Samson missing out. Unfortunately Jasprit Bumrah is not well so Mohammed Siraj is playing.

Even as he was waiting for toss to begin, Suryakumar Yadav turned around from his spot near the pitch and ran behind. Turns out he had spotted Rohit Sharma walking right across the field after a trophy ceremony.

Clad in a stylish dark shacket, the blend of jacket and shirt, and linking extremely lean and fit, Rohit hugged Surya. The crowd cottoned onto the moment and roared.

As he neared the sight screen on the other side, Yuzvendra Chahal, who is in the commentary team, ran across for a hug. Rohit bantered with him, and crowd roared again.

"As a bowler, you can't really think about scoring 200 or 300; you have that in mind. If you accept that, I think it is going to happen. I never accept that the team is going to score 200 or 180. You always come with a positive mindset of restricting as low as possible," Rashid stated. "If you keep that energy around the group, that they are going to score 250 or 300, trust me, it is going to happen. But it is all about the mindset."

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has approached the International Cricket Council (ICC) to initiate dialogue over their boycott of the February 15 game against India. This comes after the international cricket body’s detailed communication to PCB after it had invoked the Force Majeure clause to justify their last-minute withdrawal from the India game because of their government’s instruction. (Read more from Sandeep Dwivedi)

"If India, a month before a tournament, said ‘our government does not want us to play in a country for a World Cup’, would the ICC have been so firm and said, ‘You know the rules, bad luck, we’re knocking you out?’

“The only question all sides ask for is consistency. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India must be treated the same. Yes, India fans may say, ‘Cry more, we have the money!’ But with power comes responsibility. Constantly knocking Bangladesh or Pakistan diminishes their cricket. That’s why the great games between India and Pakistan or India and Bangladesh have become one-sided over time,” he added.

"The way he has played in the last few games and also domestic cricket, he has been playing the same way," Suryakumar said. "He opened in the warm-up. Hope he bats the same way wherever he plays.” And where will that be? High up the order, certainly. "He won't be playing below number three," the captain confirmed.

The playing surface of the Wankhede Stadium has been known to provide a good balance between the bat and ball. It, however, tends to tilt a bit in favour of the bowlers with the wicket giving assistance to both spinners and pacers. With the wind blowing in from the nearby Arabian Sea, there is expected to be considerable swing that the batters have to navigate. As the pitch tends to ease out as the match progresses, the batters are expected to find joy.

"The way he has played in the last few games and also domestic cricket, he has been playing the same way," Suryakumar said. "He opened in the warm-up. Hope he bats the same way wherever he plays.”

“Abhigyan Kundu mentioned in the post-match presentation that India, as a team, out-batted England, and it’s true. The toss was very important. Captain Ayush Mathre called it right. He won the toss and decided to bat first. It was a big final. You want runs on the board, and the celebration afterward is also needed,” Chand said. “Look at the kind of innings Vaibhav Suryavanshi played in this final against a side like England. We don’t expect that in a final. You think a player might be careful, especially after losing a wicket like Aaron George in the first three overs. He had to build a partnership and anchor. Vaibhav Suryavanshi proved why he is the next big thing in Indian cricket.”

"Yes we have players from all parts of the world. We gel and bond together because of our love for the game. And no I don't think we have ever discussed the India -Pakistan issues amongst ourselves. I don't think so at least. We are all proud to play for USA..," Netravalkar

Monank Patel (c), Andries Gous (wk), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Shayan Jahangir, Milind Kumar, Shubham Ranjane, Harmeet Singh, Mohammad Mohsin, Ali Khan, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar.

Hello and welcome to our live blog of India's World Cup opening encounter against the USA. Well, the first games at the world events are always tricky ones, but India seems to have got this under control infact they got it covered till the semifinals. As of today, unless India makes too many errors and the USA gets everything right and a lot of luck goes their way, it should be India's points here. It is going to be a fun evening, do stay with us to get all the live updates.