India Aim for Historic T20 World Cup Defense and Home Glory

India are a popular pick as tournament favourites, coming off scintillating form that has seen them win 48 of their last 56 T20I games dating back to October 2023. And more recently, producing a dominant series win against New Zealand. Most fans will agree co-hosts India are the team to beat. They are the ICC's number one-ranked sides in both white-ball formats and are as familiar with the conditions as anyone.

Take a look at the milestones the Men in Blue will be hoping to conquer in their title defence as the ICC Men's T20 World Cup gets underway on Saturday across India and Sri Lanka.

1) First team to defend T20 World Cup

India enters the 2026 tournament as the defending champions, having won the 2024 edition-just their second T20 World Cup title after winning the inaugural edition in 2007. The men in blue will become the first team in history to successfully defend the ICC Men's T20 World Cup title if they make it to the final and win the trophy, a feat that no men's team has yet accomplished.

India also broke the record in 2024 by winning all eight of their games before taking home the trophy, going undefeated during the competition, and becoming the first team to win the T20 World Cup without suffering a defeat. The Men in Blue are now determined to make history by holding onto their title, which has eluded all previous winners in the shortest format.

2) First men's team to lift T20 World Cup crown on home soil

Since the inaugural edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2007, which was held in South Africa, there have been six different winners to hold the coveted trophy so far, with the West Indies, England and reigning champions India the only teams to have claimed the title twice, while Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka have lifted the silverware once.

So far none of the host nations have ever won the Men's T20 World Cup. South Africa (2007), England (2009), West Indies (2010), Sri Lanka (2012), Bangladesh (2014), India (2016), UAE & Oman (2021), Australia (2022), and USA & West Indies (2024) all staged the event, yet the winners were from elsewhere.

In 10th edition, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, Men in Blue will be hoping to finally break the jinx.

Notably, last November the Indian women's team lifted the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 title as hosts at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, claiming their first-ever World Cup crown.

3) Indian men and women's team simultaneously holding the T20 World Cup title

Should India lift the coveted silverware on March 8, it will be the first time in Indian cricketing history that both the men's and women's teams hold the T20 World Cup crown.

India women beat South Africa by 52 runs to win the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 final at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai last November to clinch their first-ever World Cup crown.

In 2016, it happened for the first time that a team held the women's and men's T20 titles simultaneously when the West Indies' women and men won their respective T20 crowns.

4) First team to win three T20 World titles

India became the third team to win the men's T20 World Cup for the second time, having won the inaugural 2007 edition. In the 2016 edition, the West Indies, who won their first title in 2012, became the first team to win multiple titles when they reclaimed the silverware in 2016, while England won in 2010 and 2022.

In 2026, Men in Blue are eyeing the unprecedented record of becoming the first team to win three T20 World Cup trophies, a feat that has never been achieved before.

5) Most match wins in the singles edition of T20 spectacle

In 2024, India scripted history by becoming the first team to win the men's T20 World Cup without losing a game all tournament. India won all eight matches they played in the tournament and had one washout: the first-round game against Canada.

India's eight consecutive wins in completed games is the joint-longest winning streak for any team in the men's T20 World Cup. Australia won eight successive games across the 2022 and 2024 editions, while South Africa was on an eight-match winning streak before defeat in the 2024 final.

In the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup, 20 teams will compete across 55 matches. India are scheduled to play nine games, including the potential final. If they remain unbeaten throughout the tournament, India will underline their dominance in the shortest format by becoming the team with the most match wins in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.

- IANS