India vs USA T20 Cricket World Cup Predictions - Varma to get India off to a flying start

India won their only previous T20I clash with the USA by seven wickets back in 2024.

India completed a 4-1 T20I series win over New Zealand at the end of January when they won the 5th T20I by 46 runs. 

Tilak Varma has scored over 25 in his last eight innings. Suryakumar Yadav has scored 60-plus in three of his last five innings. Ishan Kishan is enjoying a rich vein of form, scoring 76, 28, 103 and 53 in his last four innings.

Axar Patel has scored 130, 73 and 35*, along with picking up 2/27, 3/33 and 1/2 in his last five matches. Arshdeep Singh has taken 2/33, 5/51 and 1/29 in his last three matches. Jasprit Bumrah took 3/17 in the 3rd T20I win over New Zealand. Kuldeep Yadav returned figures of 2/35 and 2/39 in his last four matches.

The USA have won four of their last five T20Is, beating Canada in the final of the North America T20 Cup in their last T20I, which was back in April 2025. They won six ODIs in a row in their ODI World Cup qualifying campaign back at the end of 2025. Prior to the T20 World Cup they lost both of their warm-up matches, first to India A and then against New Zealand. 

In the warm-up match against New Zealand, Saurabh Netravalkar (2/37, econ 9.25) and Ali Khan (1/27, econ 9.00) did well to contain the Kiwis, but the rest of the attack took a pasting. 

The USA did well to chase their target of 209, only to fall seven runs short. Saiteja Mukkamalla (50 off 31), Monank Patel (31 off 14), Milind Kumar (43 off 26) and Shubham Ranjane (41 off 23) all contributed with the bat.

Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav was upbeat ahead of the start of the World Cup. “We have been playing a good brand of cricket for the last two to three years, but we have changed our thinking. We used to play bilateral series differently than the ICC tournaments, but now we try to play in the same manner. This is why, when we went to play the 2024 T20 World Cup, it did not feel any different. It felt like we had been playing this way for an entire year. Even now, the kind of cricket we have been playing for the last year, we will try to play the same way (in the T20 World Cup). And if we play well, the result will also be on our side,” said Suryakumar.

USA captain Monank Patel was in high spirits ahead of his side’s opening match in the World Cup. "It is a great feeling to come to India and play in the World Cup. As a kid, I always dreamt of playing in a World Cup, but never thought of playing in a World Cup in India and representing the USA. We had a few hurdles before, and I think we've been used to these things before also. We were well focused and we got good preparation in the last three weeks, and we are well focused and ready to play the World Cup," said Patel.

India Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ishan Kishan (w), Sanju Samson (w), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy.

USA Squad: Monank Patel (c), Andries Gous (w), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Shayan Jahangir, Harmeet Singh, Shehan Jayasuriya, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Milind Kumar, Mohammad Mohsin, Shubham Ranjane, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Jasdeep Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar.