ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2026: Starter Scares for the Biggies!

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2026 got underway on the 7^th of February, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka with the first of the day’s three matches played in Colombo, the second in Kolkata and the last in Mumbai which was preceded by a brief inauguration ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium. The twenty participating teams of the 55-match tournament are divided into four groups of five teams each with Bangladesh replaced by Scotland and Pakistan deciding to boycott India in protest against the treatment meted out to Bangladesh by the ICC.  However, Pakistan’s obviously political decision didn’t quite clarify as to what Pakistan cricket team would do if they met India either in the semifinal or the final. Per the latest reports Pakistan is still engaged in parleys with the ICC about their cricket team’s boycott of the Indian cricket team. The big money involved in the match or matches of the archrivals is too big to let it go, with the channels/Boards already losing money as the fertile commercials about the India-Pakistan match in Colombo on 15^th February having had to be stopped.

The six matches played on the first two days of the T20 World Cup have been low to moderate scoring affairs as against the sponsors’ manic ads about the 300+ alerts, with particular reference to Team India with the likes of Abhishek Sarma, the cracking-in-form Ishan Kishan among others. But till late today, the 300+ runs targets or chases remain a distant dream even if it means jumping to conclusions too early.

Three of the six matches played so far have been veritably palpable scares to the biggies—namely Pakistan, India and England. In the tournament opener of Pakistan Vs Netherlands match in Colombo the former stared at almost inevitable defeat, needing 29 runs off the last two overs with 7 wickets down. Thanks to a crucial dropped catch Pak batsman Faheem Ashraf could finally capitalize on that and amid a rain of sixes and fours robbed the luckless Netherlands bowler of 24 runs, reducing the target to a very attainable 5 runs in the last over, finally winning the match by 3 wickets.

In the India Vs USA match in Mumbai the ads-driven repeating-history-defeating-history defending Champions host, put into bat, struggled to score runs having lost Abhishek for a golden duck and Ishan cheaply. The charged-up USA bowlers reduced India to a precarious 77 for 6, with the prospects of a shock defeat looming large. Captain Surya Kumar Yadav came to the rescue with a knock (84 not out) of absolute brilliance and helped India to a relatively strong 161 in 20 overs. The target was beyond the inexperienced USA batsmen with the Indian strike bowlers of Arshdeep, Siraj, Axar and Chakravarty in operation, finally India winning by 29 runs.

Today’s second match of England Vs Nepal delivered another huge scare to the former. The 16^th ranked Nepal first restricted them to a moderate 182/7 and then their batsmen kept on hard to achieve the target. The match went down the wire with Nepal needing 24 runs in the last two overs, 14 of which were achieved off the 19^th over leaving just 10 to get in the last over, five wickets still standing. An absolutely yorker-length brilliant last over by Sam Curran saved the day for England enabling his team to win narrowly by 4 runs.

Today’s last match of Sri Lanka Vs Ireland in Colombo is also posing to be a low-scoring affair as Ireland bowlers are putting the hosts in check, restricting the total to 163/6 in 20 overs. Okay! Let it be the biggies or the supposed minnows an international tournament is always exciting as nations with self-respect and pride vie for the honors do or die. Upsets or low-scoring games, the suspense is supreme in close matches that are the essence of the short-format cricket and the more the closer and tighter games the more the nail-biting glorious uncertainties. Enjoy!