India is facing Zimbabwe in an important match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Men in Blue were invited to bat first after Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza won the toss and decided to field first. India made two changes in the game, with Sanju Samson coming in for Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar replacing vice-captain Axar Patel.
Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma gave a fast start to India against Chevron. The former player made a good start, using his experience and playing aggressive shots from the very first over and scored 24 runs in 15 balls, hitting two sixes and a four in his short, impressive innings. Made a partnership of 48 runs for the first wicket.
Sanju Samson played an important innings
This was the start India needed after stumbling in the first overs in the previous overs and losing one of its openers in the first over itself. India averaged just 6.8 for the first wicket in the T20 World Cup 2026 and that is the worst among all the 20 teams playing in the premier ICC event.
The opening partnership reached 48 runs after Sanju Samson came back into the team. Pointing towards the former fast bowler, Irfan Pathan praised Samson’s short, explosive innings and expressed his views about how the opening batsman played as per the expectations of the team management.
Sanju Samson played exactly as the team needed – Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan via
India’s first wicket average in this World Cup was around 7. The lowest among all the teams.
Today Sanju Samson played exactly the way the team needed and helped India build the biggest opening partnership in this World Cup.
He worked.
– Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) 26 February 2026
Talking about the opening partnerships, in 5 matches India scored 8 runs against USA, the next 25 runs were against Namibia, Sanju played one match and scored 22 runs on 8 balls. After this, it was one run against Pakistan, and then 0 runs against Netherlands, followed by another 0 runs against South Africa before losing the first wicket.
Indian opening partnerships have been a problem
With one of the opening batsmen failing, pressure was mounting on India’s middle order and it was collapsing in the middle overs. However, the problem was not just the low runs but also the manner of dismissals as the openers were too defensive against the new balls, or they were getting out by playing careless shots.
Sanju Samson has been in and out of the team due to his form. Despite performing well in 2024, he was dropped from the team in 2025 to accommodate Shubman Gill and then batted in the middle order and failed to make an impact. Later he returned to his original position but failed to score runs.
In the last seven innings he has scored 92 runs at an average of 13.14. That’s why he was thrown out. This was only the second match in this edition of the competition. Samson played his first match against Namibia after Abhishek Sharma was out due to stomach pain.
Talking about the match, India is in a good position with 220/4 at the end of 18 overs. Abhishek Sharma finally scored his first big run, scoring 55 off 30 balls, as the southpaw hit four sixes and as many fours. Suryakumar Yadav is playing an inning of 33 runs in 14 balls as the Men in Blue eye a target of over 220.
Also Read: Watch: Gautam Gambhir makes unexpected gesture for Sanju Samson after his dismissal against Zimbabwe
