T20 World Cup 2026: 5 Under-performing Indian players in the tournament

The Indian team had entered the T20 World Cup 2026 with a lot of hope and form behind them. Their players were in top form in the last two bilateral series at home. However, that air of superiority was deflated in the first game against the USA.

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Since then, the Indian team, despite going through the group stage unbeaten, has seemingly struggled, with batters and bowlers performing below their capacity. Their poor outings were exposed in the Super 8s game against South Africa, where both the bowling and batting failed spectacularly.

Today we take a look at the 5 underperforming Indian players in the T20 World Cup 2026.

Here are the 5 underperforming Indian players in the T20 World Cup 2026 tournament:

5. Washington Sundar

Washington Sundar has played two games in the T20 World Cup 2026 so far, taking 0 wickets and making 11 runs. Sundar, despite being drafted into the India XI at the cost of vice-captain Axar Patel, has not been trusted to bowl his quota of four overs. In the one game where he needed to bat well for India, he found it hard to cope with South African bowling and made only 11 runs in a struggle-filled innings.

4. Suryakumar Yadav

Many would be surprised to see India captain Suryakumar Yadav’s name on this list. He has scored 180 runs with a best score of 84* that came against the USA in five innings. However, the interesting thing has been his strike rate of 127.65. Surya has come in to bat after the top order failed and played anchor roles. But the issue is that he has failed to accelerate when the time came in the last 5–6 overs and has continued to play the anchor role, hurting India’s chances of a big score.

3. Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya has scored 105 runs and taken five wickets with one fifty against Namibia at an economy rate of 8.66. He had supported Jasprit Bumrah well with the new ball but was taken to the cleaners against South Africa. His inability to bowl yorkers and slower balls led to South African batters hammering him in the final overs. With the bat, his notable knock came against Namibia, while he scored a zero against South Africa.

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2. Tilak Varma

Tilak Varma came into the T20 World Cup after recovering from an injury and hasn’t been able to bat at the level he was at previously. He has managed 107 runs in five matches in the tournament, at a strike rate of 118.88. He has struggled against both pace and spin and has been unable to hit the big shots to continue the momentum or accelerate when needed. He has underperformed seriously, with calls for him to be dropped for Sanju Samson.

1. Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek Sharma has been a huge disappointment for India in this T20 World Cup 2026. Abhishek came into this tournament in good form. But he encountered a stomach bug, which has seemingly hampered his batting as well. He started with a duck against the USA, missed the Namibia game, and earned two more ducks against Pakistan and the Netherlands. He finally scored 18 runs against South Africa. However, he should have continued once he got runs, and that is something Abhishek needs to learn—that he doesn’t have to hit every ball for a six or four and needs to take singles as well.

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