Over to 2026: Five showpieces Indian sports fans need to watch out for

Can the 2026 FIFA World Cup turn the clock back to a face-off between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo? Will home advantage help Suryakumar Yadav & Co. become the first-ever team to win back-to-back T20 World Cups? These are but two of the tough questions to keep the Indian sports fan occupied in the new year, which will be upon us in a few hours.

Under normal circumstances, a sports fan doesn’t have to look beyond a football World Cup if it’s on the calendar, as the lure is overpowering, so what if India can never dream of being party to it? An expansion of the playing field from 32 to 48 teams, at one stroke, may see Curaçao officially become the smallest country to qualify for the ‘greatest show on earth,’ but not India. Still, the biggest World Cup ever spread over three countries (US, Canada and Mexico) is sure to leave fans in cricket-crazy countries sleep deprived for a month.

However, before one gets there, the country will be swept by cricket fever as the World T20 comes back to India after a decade’s gap, with the 2021 edition having shifted to the UAE for the Covid pandemic. The ICC T20 Women’s World Cup in June-July in England will also generate great excitement, with expectations rising from the Women in Blue after their 50-over World Cup success in November.

We, at National Herald, try to zero in on five events which will have Indian sports buffs on the edge of their seats in 2026:

FIFA World Cup (11 June-19 July)

The new-format, 48-team World Cup spread over three countries is certainly going to be the biggest, but only time can tell if it will be the best. What stands out for now is that the tournament will be played over 39 days instead of a month, and feature 104 matches instead of the usual 64 which a 32-team format entailed. 

There will be 12 groups of four teams each, with the top two finishers from each group and eight of the best third-place finishers making up the round of 32: an additional round from which teams will be whittled to 16. This effectively means that the would-be champions will have to play eight matches, instead of the usual seven which Argentina played last to be champions in Qatar 2022.

While the Qatar showpiece attracted a whopping inflow of Indian tourists to the Gulf country to boost football tourism, the early indications are not that encouraging this time, with budget being a major concern. Things may certainly change in the coming months, though.   

ICC Men’s World Cup cricket (7 February-8 March)

A year-and-a-half have flown by since Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made for a memorable frame when they held aloft the 2024 T20 World Cup trophy in the Caribbean, ending an 11-year jinx when it came to major ICC silverware. The onus will be now on SKY and his men, looking unstoppable on form, to break free of the pressure of playing at home and become the first-ever nation to win back-to-back World T20 trophies.

All eyes will be on the marquee India-Pakistan league game in Colombo on 15 February, with the previous three clashes in the last Asia Cup being mired in the 'handshake controversy', bitterness and a close final where the Men in Blue prevailed. While India may have looked unstoppable in the bilaterals for the past year, they cannot afford to slip up in the knockout stages. One bad day like the one in the last 50-over cup final in Ahmedabad can spell trouble.

ICC Women's T20 World Cup (12 June–5 July)

Expectations will be skyhigh from Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. for an encore in the T20 World Cup in England, though the task will be far from easy. If their 5-0 sweep against Sri Lanka at home is any indication, there is certainly a new-found ruthless streak, but this format will demand a high-risk-high-reward approach.

This is where the likes of Shafali Varma and Richa Ghosh will come in handy, and it may be worth a try to bring Richa up the order to get the early tempo going. The team did make the final once before in 2020, where they were pummelled by the ruthless Aussies before a record crowd at the MCG. Stung by their semi-final loss in the recent 50-over event in Navi Mumbai, the yellow shirts will want to come hard at India.

Asian Games (19 September-4 October) 

For the elite Indian athlete, the Asian Games are the next big thing after the Olympics, and the last edition at Hangzhou saw them reap a record haul of 107 medals to finish fourth in the final tally. Expectations for an encore will mount in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan with hopes being pinned on athletics and shooting to provide the bulk of the medals.

In Hangzhou, shooters accounted for 22 medals, their best-ever, while track and field produced 29 in all. There are other core areas such as archery, boxing, hockey and, of course, women’s cricket.

Commonwealth Games (23 July-2 Aug)

It’s common knowledge that Glasgow will be a truncated affair, with only 10 disciplines on offer — which considerably reduces India’s chances of emulating its performance at previous editions. However, there will be a certain degree of curiosity around the event as it’s the last one before the Games come to India in 2030. It will be interesting to watch out for Indian participation in athletics, weightlifting and boxing.