India Vs Zimbabwe Likely Playing XIs, ICC T20 World Cup 2026 Super Eights: Solving Samson-Abhishek Riddle

Will India drop Abhishek Sharma for the Zimbabwe match? Will Sanju Samson make a return to India's playing XI? Is Rinku Singh available for selection? Or, what about Tilak Verma? Surely, these are the biggest questions India wrestled with ahead of their must-win Super 8 match in Chennai on Thursday (February 26, 2026).

The defending champions suffered a humiliating defeat to South Africa, and with the West Indies fixture looming, they are clutching at straws. For now, Group 1 is wide open, largely thanks to the Windies' mauling of Zimbabwe in their Super 8 opener.

But for India, the pre-tournament favourites and the top-ranked T20I side, an unlikely defeat against Zimbabwe at the Chepauk tonight will, in all probability, mean the end of the road. That, however, will be part of the ongoing discussion, at least till the weekend, when all four teams will have played all their Super 8 games.

India Vs Zimbabwe: Predicting The Playing XIs

With only a few hours to the toss, the think tank featuring head coach Gautam Gambhir and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, who faced the media on the eve of the match, must have already picked the playing XI. Of course, a last-minute pitch reading and any 11th-hour emergency would still force a change.

For a team that threatened to breach the 300-run mark in T20 cricket, their biggest worry now is about batting. They were undefeated in the group stage, but there were visible cracks in the line-up. And when South Africa set a 188-run target in Ahmedabad, it crumbled.

So, India's priority is to fix the batting line-up -- by dropping or changing the order.

And that brings us to the form of Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma and Suryakumar Yadav, the skipper.

Sharma endured probably the worst World Cup debut campaign for a poster boy. The left-handed opener was dismissed for three successive ducks, then managed 15 in the 76-run defeat against South Africa -- a result that has compromised the team's standing, here and everywhere.

Verma, occupying a position of envy, failed to go past 31. Batting at No.3, his role is to bring a sense of calm if not dictate the terms, but he has struggled to force his presence. The same is true for Yadav, India's 'Mr. 360'.

Will India stick with the trio? Suryakumar Yadav, being the team captain, is self-selected, but there's no certainty that Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma will find their names in the team sheet today.

And that shifts the focus to other available talent in the 15-member squad. There's Sanju Samson for one, an explosive right-handed opener. Just like fellow wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, he is known for playing the brand of cricket the current dispensation espouses.

Rinku Singh, the finisher who had played limited roles in the previous games, left the camp to attend a family emergency and was expected to rejoin. But his place in the playing XI is a big if as India look to add another right-hand batter into the line-up, probably in the form of all-rounder Axar Patel.

Predicting the playing XI, especially for a team in a do-or-die situation, is a task fraught with danger. But here we are:

India's Predicted Playing XI Vs Zimbabwe:

Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Zimbabwe's Predicted Playing XI Vs India:

For a team that defeated former champions Australia and Sri Lanka to win their group, there's no need for chopping and changing. Expect the same XI that took on the Windies to feature tonight.

Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza (c), Tashinga Musekiwa, Tony Munyonga, Dion Myers, Brad Evans, Graeme Cremer, Richard Ngarava, and Blessing Muzarabani.