T20 World Cup 2026: Jasprit Bumrah returns but Indian batters in forefront

India pacer Jasprit Bumrah trains in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

Gained two, lost one. That's India's scorecard heading into their second Group A fixture of the T20 World Cup.

India's build-up to their title defence has been anything but encouraging from an injury/illness perspective. Two days before the start of their campaign against United States, they lost promising paceman Harshit Rana for the entire tournament with a knee injury. They only had a complement of 13 - including Rana's replacement, Mohammed Siraj - to choose from at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, with Jasprit Bumrah ill and Washington Sundar yet to join the team following a side injury.

Having survived a mighty scare, India received a major boost ahead of their Thursday showdown against Namibia. Bumrah showed no signs of fatigue when he went full tilt at Tuesday's full practice session, while Washington bowled and then batted to reiterate that he too was back at full fitness. On the flip side, though, India are set to miss explosive opener Abhishek Sharma, admitted to a Delhi hospital with a stomach infection before being discharged on Wednesday.
On his World Cup debut, Abhishek was dismissed for a golden duck; any chance of hitting his straps against Gerhard Erasmus's side ahead of the faceoff against Pakistan in Colombo on Sunday are minimal.

Barring Suryakumar Yadav, India's batters came a cropper against US and will try to make the best of what is expected to be a better batting surface to work their way back among the runs. Namibia, whose only previous T20I against India ended in a nine-wicket drubbing in Dubai at the 2021 World Cup, are coming off a seven-wicket loss to the Netherlands in their opener, also at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, though that was in a match which started at 11 am.

Erasmus confirmed that his side, which doesn't have lights to train under back home, couldn't have even a single session under lights. By contrast, India practiced for two nights in a row and even Canada trained alongside the Indians on Wednesday night even though they have a 3 pm start against UAE on Friday. Bizarre much?

One
No. of times India and Namibia have faced each other in T20Is with the former winning the 2021 T20 World Cup game in Dubai by nine wickets

Four
No. of T20Is India have played in New Delhi, winning two and losing two