On 8 March in Ahmedabad, India posted 255 against New Zealand and won the T20 World Cup final by 96 runs. No side had ever made that many in a final of the competition.
India now hold the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup at the same time. The fourth major white-ball title belongs to Australia, who took it from India in the same stadium in November 2023.
Why India are short-priced favourites in every white-ball series
Holding three major titles at once changes how a team is priced. India start almost every white-ball fixture as heavy favourites, which flattens the value on straight match markets and pushes attention towards player props, series scorelines and totals. Readers who follow those markets can look up the Parimatch promo code on Football Whispers before the next series begins.
The record explains the pricing. March was India’s fourth T20 World Cup final, more than any other nation, and their fifteenth appearance in the final of an ICC limited-overs tournament, also a record. The 2026 title was the country’s fifth World Cup across formats, going back to the 1983 win at Lord’s.
T20 World Cup 2026: three records broken in the Ahmedabad final
India became the first side to win three T20 World Cups, having previously lifted the trophy in 2007 and 2024. They became the first to defend it. They became the first host nation to win it.
Sanju Samson set the individual scoring record for a men’s final, opening with Abhishek Sharma in a stand of 98 inside seven overs. Ishan Kishan then reached fifty in 23 balls and added 105 with Samson. New Zealand had won the toss and chosen to field, a decision that looked reasonable at the time.
None of it came easily. India were 77 for 6 against the United States in their opening match in Mumbai, a scoreline that would have ended most title defences before they started.
The 2023 ODI World Cup final India lost to Australia
The Narendra Modi Stadium has now staged two World Cup finals involving India in three years, with opposite outcomes. On 19 November 2023, Australia chased down India’s total to win the ODI World Cup by six wickets in front of 92,453 spectators, with Travis Head taking the player of the match award.
Australia have won that competition six times. India have won it twice, in 1983 and 2011, and lost the only home final they have contested. The 2023 defeat is the reason the 50-over trophy is the one gap in an otherwise complete collection.
India tour Bangladesh in September for three ODIs and three T20Is
India travel to Bangladesh between 1 and 13 September for three one-day internationals and three T20 internationals. The tour was originally scheduled for August 2025 before being pushed back a full year.
It carries a first. No bilateral T20I series between the two countries has ever been staged in Bangladesh, which gives an otherwise routine trip a line in the record books. Conditions there tend to favour spin and lower scoring than Indian pitches produce.
Asian Games cricket: India defend two gold medals in Japan
Cricket features at the Asian Games in Japan, with competition running from 19 September to 4 October in Aichi and Nagoya. India are defending champions in both the men’s and women’s events.
The tournament draws less attention than an ICC event, partly because leading nations do not always send full-strength squads. Defending two titles in a compressed schedule immediately after a Bangladesh tour will still test squad depth more than any single series this year.
Test cricket in Sri Lanka and New Zealand: the harder examination
India face two-Test away series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the second half of 2026, both part of the World Test Championship cycle running to 2027. Four matches in total, with little room to recover from a poor session.
The January visit of New Zealand was a reminder that white-ball form does not transfer automatically. India won the T20I series 4-1 with Suryakumar Yadav taking the player of the series award, but lost the ODI series 2-1 under Shubman Gill, with Daryl Mitchell named the standout performer.
ODI World Cup 2027 in Africa is the trophy India want
The next ODI World Cup runs in October and November 2027, hosted jointly by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. It returns to Africa for the first time since 2003 and expands to 14 teams across a new format of group stage, Super Six, semi-finals and final.
Australia will defend the title. For India, it is the one trophy missing from a cabinet that already holds everything else in the short formats, and the squad that won in Ahmedabad will be four years older by the time it comes around.
Suryakumar Yadav has already named another target. Cricket returns to the Olympic programme at Los Angeles, with competition beginning on 12 July 2028, more than a century after its only previous appearance. Two chances, then, to fill the last gap. Africa first, then California.
