No Virat, Rohit or Pant? No problem: India seem to have the best men’s T20 resources in world cricket

The T20 phenomenon continues to amaze me.

Growing up, you might have played a version of a shortened cricket match (5,10 or 20 overs) with rules like ‘one tip one hand’ – which allowed fielders to take a catch with one hand after the ball had bounced once - in the gullies and by-lanes of your neighbourhood. But on a professional level, it was the England and Wales Cricket Board (and former ECB marketing manager Stuart Robertson) who are given credit for introducing, in 2003, what has turned out to be arguably the most consistently popular shortened format of the sport and also the most polarising – T20 cricket.

In many ways, the true brain behind the thought process that a cricket match can be shortened down to what many thought were ridiculous less than twenty years ago, to heighten visual appeal, was former New Zealand captain, the late Martin Crowe, with help from his brother Jeff. The Crowe’s visionary ‘Cricket Max’ prototype, which had “two innings of ten 8-ball overs per team (which was later reduced to 6-ball overs) or four quarters of ten overs each” and debuted in February 1996 was a true predecessor to the T20 format and what prompted Robertson to propose the format.

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The mandate was simple – crowd attendances at county matches was falling sharply and a cure was needed. The answer seemed to be a faster, more entertaining and exciting format – and professional T20 cricket was born.

Fast forward almost twenty years and it’s been a while since we knew that T20 cricket is here to stay. For those of us who have tracked the game from well before the first T20 World Cup was played way back in 2007, it sometimes feels surreal when we sit back and absorb the true worldwide popularity of the format. And to think the BCCI was initially reluctant to send a team for the 2007 World Cup in South Africa! In fact, as Lalchand Rajput, a veteran coach and the man who was the manager of the Indian team at the first edition of the T20 World Cup told me in an exclusive interview earlier this year – “No one expected the Indian team would even qualify, forget about winning.”

Fast forward another 18 years and most cricket experts will tell you that India have the most popular and most financially successful T20 league of all time, which is also the BCCI’s biggest money-generator – the IPL. According to a report in The Hindu, in the financial year 2023-24, the IPL’s contribution to the BCCI’s total revenue was as much as 59% .

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But the financials aside, what India also have currently is arguably the best men’s T20 resources in the world. If you have any doubts whatsoever, just compare the Indian 2024 T20 World Cup squad with the one that was announced on Tuesday (August 19) for the 2025 Asia Cup , which starts on September 9. There are as many as seven new faces – seven players, who the selectors thought shouldn’t be in the squad for the biggest T20I tournament in the world just over a year ago, are now first-choice picks for the upcoming Asia Cup.

Albeit, three slots (compared to the 2024 T20 World Cup squad) needed to be force-filled. Two because of retirements (Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma) and one because of a serious injury (Rishabh Pant).

Stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who were part of that squad in 2024 for the World Cup, which India won and announced their T20 international retirements right after, are, of course, missing. If this were any other format, we would have been talking about the gaping holes that have been left where their towering figures once stood, but India’s incredible T20 resources have ensured that no one can realistically question any of the 15 selections for the Asia Cup. Each and every member of this squad deserved a call-up, including Shubman Gill . Though his workload management is also something the selectors should be keeping in mind (batters too need to be safeguarded against burnout), he is young and someone the selectors have identified as a leader. He might have played his last T20I over a year ago (vs Sri Lanka), but that didn’t stop the selectors from naming him the vice-captain, which also essentially means he will be opening the batting.

That in turn means Sanju Samson could well not make the playing XI. And here we are talking about a player who is hands-down one of the most gifted and technically sound hitters of the cricket ball, with a T20I strike rate of almost 153 and three T20I centuries and who might well warm the bench. And that is yet another reminder of India’s incredible men’s T20 bench strength and overall resources.

The fact that the likes of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar – players who will be first-choice picks for any IPL team - haven’t found a place in the Asia Cup squad shows just how stiff the competition is for an India slot in T20Is these days.

So, in case Samson doesn’t make the first-choice XI cut, who will keep wickets at the Asia Cup? Jitesh Sharma, of course. At 31, Jitesh is not your quintessential Gen-Z T20 cricketer and adds another dimension to the coffers of India’s T20 resources. He has been part of the IPL set-up since 2016, but only made his T20I debut in 2023, in the first quarter-final of the Hangzhou Asian Games, vs Nepal. The two ‘big’ series that he has played in before this have been against Australia at home and vs South Africa, away, for a total of just 9 T20Is so far. But that was enough for the selectors to pick him for the Asia Cup. After all, he did have a great IPL season this year (strike rate of almost 177 and average of 37), helping RCB clinch their maiden title and establishing himself as another good finisher option.

The fact that he can keep wickets only made his case stronger and helped him knock off Dhruv Jurel, who was the back-up keeper to Samson when India last played a T20I series vs England in January this year.

A ‘complete T20 squad’ despite injuries and retirements

Imagine not having Rishabh Pant’s services in Test cricket for a major series. The obvious technical differences in the two formats and the plethora of keeping options that India have in the shortest format make it easy for the selectors to pick a winning combination, although a few ‘first choice names’ are missing from the equation. For the experts and fans, too, India’s chances of winning the title are in no way diminished because of this. Of course, an Asia Cup is not in the same vicinity as a World Cup in terms of the level of competition, but remember, there will be no Virat or Rohit for the 2026 T20 World Cup either and there won’t be too many people out there who will be sweating over that.

This Asia Cup squad is in many ways a precursor to the 15-man squad that will be picked for the next edition of the T20 World Cup in home conditions (the 2026 T20 World Cup will be played in India and Sri Lanka). And remember – there are multiple options available for the selectors for almost every single spot in the squad.

And in that context, it is really good to see Jasprit Bumrah’s name in the squad list for the Asia Cup. His last T20I campaign was the 2024 World Cup and though India have a match-winner like Mohammed Siraj, who was also part of the 2024 T20 World Cup winning squad, along with someone like Prasidh Krishna, a fully fit Bumrah and one who has to bowl only a maximum of 4 overs per match, is priceless and yet another reflection of India’s robust T20 resources.

It’s not just the young guns who are coming up in season after season of the IPL (and often so fast that it becomes quite a task for the selectors to keep track of them all), it’s also the ‘old war-horses’ who are out and out match-winners who have not just kept India consistently on top of the T20I team rankings, but also ensured almost complete global dominance. And that is where the Indian set-up needs to be given a lot of credit, considering the shortest format makes it easier for teams to constantly produce match-winning players and the best of teams can be given a run for their money on a bad day, more often than in Test or ODI cricket.

And yet from 2023 onwards, India have won 43 of their 53 finished T20Is. In fact, from 2006 (when India first played a T20I) till now, the team has a win percentage of 66.39 from 247 matches. That’s better than Australia (56.39% win percentage - 211 matches from 2005 onwards), better than England (52.17% win percentage – 207 matches played from 2005 onwards), better than Pakistan (56.55% win percentage - 267 matches from 2006 onwards), better than South Africa (54.41% win percentage – 204 matches from 2005 onwards), better than Sri Lanka (44.17% win percentage – 206 matches from 2006 onwards) and better than the West Indies (41.66% win percentage – 228 matches from 2006 onwards).

Opener Abhishek Sharma was not a part of the 2024 T20 World Cup squad, but he has already played 17 T20Is since his India debut in the format in July 2024 on the tour of Zimbabwe, where he notched up his maiden international century (100 off 47 balls) in the second T20I in Harare. In fact, in this one-year period, the 24-year-old from Amritsar has notched up T20I scores like – 100, 50, 79 and 135. And despite the fact that he also has had scores of below 20 as many as nine times, there’s no way the selectors could have overlooked him.

Especially after his exploits with the bat in the last two editions of the IPL (484 runs in 2024 at a SR of 204 and 439 runs in 2025 at a SR of 193). His 141 off 55 balls vs Punjab Kings this season didn’t just give him the tag of ‘Indian batter with the highest individual IPL score’, it also pretty much cemented his place in the minds of the selectors and in turn the Asia Cup squad. Abhishek, in many ways is a great representative of a whole clutch of mindboggling hitters who are banging on the doors of national selection. But, as history has shown us, only a handful of players can boast of an all but certain place in an Indian T20I squad and they too are constantly kept on their toes by a supply line of extremely talented hitters and all-rounders.

The likes of Tilak Verma, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy are the others who were not part of the last T20 World Cup squad, but have made the cut for the Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Look at someone like Rana – he has played only 1 T20I so far – the 4th out of five T20Is vs England in January this year. He took 3/33 in his four overs. His 34 wickets in the 2024 and 2025 IPL seasons combined made him a pace bowling option the selectors had to look at and overall expanded India’s T20 resources roster. Varun, meanwhile, was a shoo-in after his exploits in the ICC Champions Trophy (joint second-highest wicket taker with 9 wickets).

This is an India set-up that thrashed England 4-1 in Jan-Feb this year, without the services of two ‘first-choice’ picks – Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. Overall, India’s dominance in the shortest format of the game is almost unparalleled. With an unwavering commitment to hard-hitting and a goal to consistently try and score 250 plus in every match, regardless of a few failures along the way, the Indian T20I  set-up might look unidirectional from the outside, but it’s not.

T20 cricket is quite simple, not complicated like Test cricket or even ODIs, but you have to build a playing XI brick by brick, to ensure that there are multiple players capable of carrying out that one plan - hit an opposition out of a contest. Yes, bowlers do win T20 games too, but the methodology that Team India is following, and one that others are copying, is to ensure that there are capable and reliable hitters (pure batters and batting all-rounders combined) down to at least numbers 7 or 8 in the line-up, with 8 being the preferable slot.

Very steadily, Team India have become synonymous with T20I excellence. Their burgeoning resources, thanks to a steady supply line fed by the 10 IPL teams, commitment to a fixed blueprint, enormous self-confidence, along with other factors, have ensured that the team has come a very, very long way indeed in the T20I scheme of things.

And to think that they were initially reluctant to embrace T20 cricket.