Sanjeev Kumar
khelja|07-02-2026
Will Ishan Kishan replace Samson in the opening?Image Credit source: PTI
T20 World Cup 2026 has started and soon Team India will take the field for the first time to defend its title. Under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian team will face America in its first match of the group stage. How much challenge the USA team will pose to the current champion team India will be known after the start of the match. But the most eagerness is to know who will open for Team India? Its official announcement will be made only after the start of the match but Team India has decided regarding this and Ishan Kishan will take this responsibility.
Team India has selected 3 batsmen for the opening role in its squad for this World Cup. Abhishek Sharma's place is confirmed in this but there is competition between Sanju Samson and Ishaan Kishan as his partner. However, till a few days ago there was no question about this as Samson was decided for this role but his failure in the T20 series against New Zealand opened the doors for Ishan Kishan, who has been batting consistently since returning to the team.
Now Ishaan seems to be benefiting from this in the World Cup.
According to a report in Indian Express, Team India management has decided to make Ishan Kishan the opener in the first match against USA. This decision has been taken after Ishaan's consistently excellent performance. Ishaan, who returned to the team after about two and a quarter years, played explosive innings of 103, 76 and 28 runs while playing at number three in the series against New Zealand, whereas Samson could score only 45 runs in that entire series.Since then, Sanju's opening career seemed to be slipping away. This was confirmed to a great extent in the warm-up match against South Africa.
In that match, Ishaan, while opening, scored 53 runs in just 20 balls, whereas Samson did not even get a chance to bat in that match. Not only this, in the practice session of Team India a day before the match, while all the batsmen and even the bowlers took batting practice, Samson was not seen hitting the bat even once in the nets.
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