The Indian cricket team made a dismal start to their title defence in the IND vs USA T20 World Cup 2026 match. Coming in with their template attacking mode from the word go, the plan backfired as the Men in Blue ended up losing four wickets within the powerplay with USA dominating the first phase of the proceedings.
Explosive opener Abhishek Sharma failed to make any damage, departing for a golden duck in the second over. While Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan managed to make some amends for the early setback with a 37-run stand, the situation soon went downhill for India as they ended up losing three wickets in the final over of the powerplay bowled by USA pacer Shadley van Schalkwyk with the scoreline reeling at 46/4.
Following India’s shocking collapse, fans took to social media to vent their . Check some of the best reactions below.
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The hosts have really struggled to hold their ground and USA have managed to chip away at the Indian batting lineup periodically. Having already restricted the run flow, USA ensured to make inroads in regular intervals with Rinku Singh and Hardik Pandya being the latest Indian wickets to fall. Both star batters departed for single-digit scores of 6 and 5, respectively.
At the time of writing this report, the India scoreboard read 77/6 in 13 overs with Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel currently batting in the middle. India will need to make this partnership work as this is last batting pair with the bowlers next set to come in – Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Varun Chakravarthy to follow.
A loss for India will significantly hamper their chances in the competition while USA will continue their trend of being giant-killers if they can manage to come out on the winning side. In the previous edition of the T20 WC, USA succeeded in defeating Pakistan in the group stages and even advanced to Super 8s.
However, the Indian team have an experienced bowling attack and is expected to restrict USA if they can end up posting a competitive total around 150-155.
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