Off-side: India, history, and a T20 World Cup that refuses easy scripts
India begins its T20 World Cup campaign carrying two labels that the tournament’s short history has never been kind to: defending champion and host. No host nation, and no reigning champion, has ever lifted the trophy, and India now has a chance to rewrite history.
It will also be the country’s first major ICC tournament in many moons without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the dressing room. Their absence removes experience and aura, but it has also allowed a new balance to settle into the side. As the stories and data in this issue show, India enters the World Cup with a squad that is deeper, more flexible, and better aligned with the demands of modern T20 cricket than several recent iterations.
Sport, however, is rarely governed by form charts or probability tables. It bends instead to moments, to nerve, instinct, and the gumption of players on particular days. India does carry a few concerns, including injury clouds and questions around the form of opener Sanju Samson and skipper Suryakumar Yadav. The captain, however, offered some timely reassurance in the recently-concluded series against New Zealand. India is expected to negotiate the group stage comfortably, but sterner examinations will arrive quickly.
Layered over the cricket is a widening geopolitical footprint. Bangladesh was excluded after refusing to play matches in India, with Scotland roped in to fill the gap just days before the tournament. Subsequently, Pakistan announced a boycott of its marquee, high-voltage clash against India on February 15, while proceeding with the rest of its fixtures in Sri Lanka – mirroring the hybrid model of last year’s Champions Trophy, when India played all its matches in Dubai.
The Pakistan government’s decision jolted the sport. The India-Pakistan contest, now restricted to just global events, remains world cricket’s single biggest driver of revenue and reach. Yet any solution where sporting logic takes precedence over political compulsion appears increasingly distant, placing the existing order of international cricket under strain. The sustained hostilities and a complete breakdown in relations between the two boards of neighbouring nations could yet imperil cricket’s Olympic ambitions, with the sport due to return at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
Fault lines in sport extend beyond cricket. While the US administration has indicated that visa exemptions will apply for events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, heightened tensions could still prevent countries like Iran from participating. Some European nations have also begun contemplating boycotts in response to broader diplomatic strains stemming from President Trump’s plans for Greenland.
History offers many precedents. Western bloc nations, including the USA, stayed away from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and the Soviet Union and its allies responded in kind four years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
International sport has long been vulnerable to forces beyond the field of play.
And fans can only hope that cricket takes precedence and attention shifts back to performances on the field, away from visas, venues, and political brinkmanship once the tournament gets underway.
Published on Feb 03, 2026
