India vs Pakistan: T20 World Cup – teams, start time, lineups

Colombo, Sri Lanka — The most combustible rivalry in world cricket will ignite the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday night when India meet Pakistan at R Premadasa Stadium, the tournament’s first sell-out fixture and a contest that was itself in danger of boycott only days ago.

Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time (13:30 GMT) with global television audiences expected to exceed one billion. Al Jazeera Sport’s rolling build-up begins at 9:30 GMT, followed by ball-by-ball text commentary.

The fixture survived an eleventh-hour diplomatic crisis after Pakistan’s government initially ordered the team to withdraw in solidarity with Bangladesh, expelled from the event for refusing to travel to India. ICC-led negotiations involving Sri Lanka, the co-hosts, persuaded Islamabad to reverse the boycott, allowing the group-stage blockbuster to proceed at the 35,000-capacity venue.

Sunday’s showdown is a re-run of the 2025 Asian Cup final, won by India by five wickets, a match remembered for the absence of post-game handshakes and India’s refusal to accept the trophy from ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi. With neutral venues mandated for Indo-Pak contests since a 2024 bilateral agreement, Colombo has become the latest diplomatic halfway house.

Pakistan’s trump card could be 30-year-old mystery spinner Usman Tariq, whose double-jointed, sling-shot action has already claimed 11 wickets in four T20 internationals, including a hat-trick against Zimbabwe. A former Dubai-based salesman, Tariq credits the 2016 Bollywood biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story for resurrecting his cricket dream. “I had left behind thinking of making a name in cricket, but one day I watched this film, and it convinced me that I can also do the same,” he said. Cleared twice by the ICC’s biomechanics lab, Tariq took 3-27 against the USA in Colombo earlier this week and has been labelled “our X-factor” by captain Salman Ali Agha.

Demand to witness the contest has sent Colombo hotel rates soaring to $660 per night, triple normal levels, while regional flights from Chennai and Delhi have climbed above $600. Sri Lanka’s tourism authority estimates 20 percent of February’s first 100,000 visitors are travelling specifically for the match, boosting an economy recovering from a recent cyclone and financial crisis.

India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, are expected to field Ishan Kishan behind the stumps and a pace attack headlined by Jasprit Bumrah. Pakistan will rely on openers Saim Ayub and Babar Azam, with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah spearheading the bowling. The toss could prove pivotal on a surface that has already assisted spin in earlier tournament fixtures.

Tickets vanished within hours of release; scalpers are reportedly commanding four-figure sums. For Sri Lanka, the match is more than spectacle—it is a statement that the island can serve as a neutral, secure hub for South Asian neighbours whose political tensions rarely allow bilateral sport.

As both sides complete final preparations under floodlights, the question is not merely who advances in the group, but whether cricket’s fiercest rivalry can remain confined to the 22 yards in the middle.

India XI: Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson/Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah

Pakistan XI: Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Salman Mirza, Salman Ali Agha (c), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed