T20 World Cup: Namibia game India’s dress rehearsal for Sunday showdown

The favourites’ tag firmly sits on hosts and defending champions India but then, it also invites it’s own pressure—as the opening game against the US showed. In a format which has seen many a reputations tumble in the past T20 World Cups, the Men in Blue will want to be on guard against minnows Namibia on Thursday in a game which now serves as a dress rehearsal for the big game against Pakistan on Sunday.

The boot is on the other foot this time—unlike the ICC Champions Trophy last year where India were based out of Dubai all along their campaign. Suryakumar Yadav’s men will have to fly out to Colombo the very next day after Namibia game and get barely two days to run into a well settled Pakistan in a game where the stakes will be unfairly high for both teams after all the drama.

Back to the business at hand on Thursday where India, who had their most settled team in this format, are staring at a few unforeseen changes. Much as the smokescreen exists about the dashing Abhishek Sharma’s fitness, he is almost certain to miss out on the Namibia game with the stomach bug—and that leaves India with an untried opening combination of Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. 

Losing his opening spot to an in-form Ishan after a lean patch against New Zealand, experienced Samson now finds himself on the verge of getting back his opening slot. The pressure to perform will be high on the Malayali though—for he averages just 16.8 in T20Is since 2025 and has been out 10 times inside the powerplay. The team management had taken a conscious decision of dropping Shubman Gill from this set-up, but one hopes that it does not turn out to be a costly one.

There is another area of dilemma for Gautam Gambhir & Co: which pace bowler to drop now that Jasprit Bumrah, Player of the Tournament in 2024 World Cup, is back after missing the first game due to fever?  Bumrah bowled at full tilt during Tuesday’s training session and his return could mean that the axe may fall on Mohammed Siraj, who had an impressive showing by picking three wickets against the USA after being called as a last-minute replacement for Harshit Rana.

While India are well poised to make it a two-out-of-two, the young guns of the current Indian team would do well to adapt according to the match situation rather than keeping their ‘brand of cricket’ a top priority. A key difference between the Class of 2024 and this bunch is that they no more have the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli anymore.

There is enough quality and experience in the middle to offset for their absence in Surya, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya and Akshar Patel – and they just need to come to the party.

 Catch the match

 India vs Namibia

 Venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

 Start: 7 pm