When Team India will take the field at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on the evening of Sunday 22nd February, there will be a question on the lips of every Indian cricket fan - will Abhishek Sharma's bat show its magic this time? Star opener Abhishek, who arrived in the T20 World Cup 2026 as the best batsman of Team India, has not even been able to open his account yet. This Super-8 match against South Africa is also not going to be easy for them. But not only Abhishek, but this match can be troublesome for most of the batsmen of Team India because Ahmedabad has not been good for most of the batsmen.

Team India's first match will be against South Africa in the Super-8 round of T20 World Cup 2026. After the final of T20 World Cup 2024, both the teams are going to face each other again in this tournament. The performance of both has been amazing in this entire tournament. The result of this match to be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad can decide the status of Super-8 round. In such a situation, Team India will try to start this round with a win.

But this is not going to be so easy for Team India. Indian team's bowling was amazing in the group stage but the batting could not perform to its full potential. Someone or the other took charge of the team on different occasions but the entire batting line-up together could not dominate the opposing team on the field. Especially opener Abhishek Sharma has not even been able to open his account in three matches, while Tilak Verma has also failed to bat at a fast pace. Ishan Kishan, captain Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dubey have taken charge of the team on different occasions.

Now it should not be surprising if most of these batsmen do not play even in the Super-8 match against South Africa. The reason for that is the record of Indian batsmen in Narendra Modi Stadium. Abhishek has scored only 34 runs in 2 matches here, while captain Suryakumar Yadav has been able to score only 152 runs in 5 innings. Ishan Kishan could add only 79 runs in 4 innings. Then who will handle the Indian innings in such a situation? If the top order fails then who will score runs?

The answer is- Hardik Pandya. The first name in the list of batsmen who have scored the most runs in Narendra Modi Stadium is that of former captain Virat Kohli but he is no longer a part of the team. At second place is Hardik, who has scored 209 runs at an average of 35 in 7 innings on this ground and the strike rate is more than 168. Hardik has played good innings on one or two occasions in this World Cup. In such a situation, he will be expected to take charge of the team once again.

Apart from Hardik, Tilak Verma (2 matches, 104 runs) and Shivam Dubey (2 matches, 76 runs) also played here. But in this, only Dubey looks reliable in his current form. In this situation, if Team India has to overcome the difficult challenge of South Africa, then the top order batsmen will have to show their full strength together because in recent times, while Team India has played only 2 matches on this ground in the last 2 months, the African team has played 2 matches in just 2 weeks and is more adapted to the conditions. Therefore this challenge is not going to be easy.