T20 World Cup 2026: After the Ahmedabad blip, India have no room to slip up

TimesofIndia.com in Chennai: has put India in a position where they can't afford to slip up. Their net run rate (NRR) is the second worst in the Super Eight stage. To keep their last-four hopes alive, the Men in Blue need to win convincingly against Zimbabwe and the West Indies. Win is the keyword as anything less would keep the permutations alive but effectively end their campaign. Even a win requires an assist from South Africa, but this scenario should place them in better territory.

Now, in the form of Zimbabwe, India are up against an opposition that has already silenced a home crowd in the group stages when they beat Sri Lanka in Colombo. Thursday presents them with another opportunity to replicate that success at the noisy Chepauk. Both teams find themselves in a must-win situation and Zimbabwe's Ryan Burl didn't venture into the "dangerous" territory of silencing India in India. The 31-year-old prefers to focus on his side's process and sticking to what worked for them vs Sri Lanka, in Sri Lanka.




"It will be quite dangerous to answer how I am going to silence India in India. No, I mean obviously playing against Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka with home ground advantage is very difficult. But ultimately how we approach tomorrow's game is going to be no different to how we've approached the games before in the sense that we have our processes, we've got our game plan, yes it does change here and there according to the conditions and your opponents but ultimately we want to play the game that we know how to play and we have found a lot of success doing it that way. So we would obviously want to focus on as much as what our strengths are but taking into account the challenges that the opposition does present," said Burl.

However, the pressure seems greater in the Indian camp as the runaway favourites find themselves in a position to keep their campaign alive. A side which dominated the bilateral circuit for close to two years finds itself in a delicate position with players running low on confidence. Even during Tuesday's training at Chepauk, the batters, who were short on runs, took a little while to regain the dominating flow which helped them set the stage on fire in recent months. Some World Cup debutants are probably coming to terms with the pressure of the multi-nation tournament, compounded by the added pressure of it being at home.

"World Cup in India, there will be pressure. I am a big believer that any international game you play, even I have played some ordinary district game, when you go to bat, you will feel pressure. If you do not feel that anxiety, it means you are not playing cricket. So that anxiety you learn to deal with it from the start of your career. And this is a big pressure game obviously when you are representing a country and a World Cup in India and a lot of expectation.

"But I honestly believe that for a professional that is part of his life and we should deal with that in a positive manner. Just because we lost one game and we did not have good partnership and all, people talk more about it. But I honestly think they all are good enough to handle that pressure. If we want to win the World Cup, we have to handle that pressure. If we can't, then it's tough. And I don't believe that there is anything this team cannot handle. So it's just, I'm personally looking for that momentum. Once we start getting that momentum again, if we do it from tomorrow, I think they will be picking up at the right time. So I am looking at it that way," said India batting coach Kotak.

India are yet to play a perfect game in the tournament and the famed batting, billed as the real deal in the build-up, is yet to fire on all cylinders. Amongst the teams that qualified for the Super 8 stage, India's collective batting is the worst at around 20 and they have recorded as many as 11 ducks so far, again the most. Not a number to be proud of but it isn't something which the think tank is losing sleep over. According to Kotak, the team focuses on collective success or failure; individual setbacks do not weigh them down in the business end of the tournament.

In Zimbabwe, India again faces an opponent aware of its shortcomings and possessing enough variety in its attack to test the best. Blessing Muzarabani has been a real threat, already picking up 11 wickets in the tournament. However, the 6'9" bowler isn't the only weapon in their arsenal; they also boast effective spin and seam options.

"We've obviously got a lot of options and that's probably one of the advantages of the Zimbabwe lineup is we've got left arm seamer, right arm seamer, we've got couple leg spinners, we've got an off spinner, we've got a left arm offie. So we do have quite a lot of depth and I think it will probably just come down to what are the match-ups depending on the batters that are out there at the time and obviously the combinations that we do look to go for," explained Burl.

The lanky Blessing stood out during the nets; it was difficult to miss the intimidating frame. Against India, he will definitely bring something different to the table and Burl emphasised that he hasn't received the credit he deserves for his performances in the tournament.

"I mean being 6 foot 9 does help. I have to give a lot more credit to Blessing than he has received, because he's been out for about four to six months prior to this tournament. And he obviously had a lot of doubts coming in with his own body and how he was feeling and stuff like that. The success that he has had with the ball has been amazing. It's not something that has only just come about now.

"He has been doing this in international cricket previously. He's obviously someone that we really do, we're really happy having in our squad. He's one of those bowlers that's obviously 6'9", and he does kind of come a little bit from beyond the perpendicular. So jagging the ball back into the righties and across the lefties with that steep bounce does propose quite a lot of a challenge for the batters. So I'm a lot happier knowing that he's on my team and not on the opposition," added Burl.

In a few hours, India's campaign will gain much more clarity, starting with the game between South Africa and West Indies. The result of that game will have a major bearing on India's campaign as after the Ahmedabad blip, the control has slipped

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