Rohit Sharma issues killer warning: ‘95% dew factor could destroy India’s spin-heavy title defense’

Team India will start the T20 World Cup 2026 campaign as one of the favorites to win the title again. Over the past few months, India, the defending champion of the T20 World Cup, displayed utter dominance in the format. The amount of talent they have easily attracted the ‘favorite’ tag ahead of the tournament.

Former India skipper Rohit Sharma also can’t deny the fact that Team India has an immense amount of talent, which can be a headache for the coach and for the captain. Sharma believes that the tournament will test head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav’s decision-making strength at the toughest level.

Dew factor can bother Team India in the T20 World Cup 2026

The T20 World Cup 2026 will start on February 7 and will be concluded with the final match on March 8, 2026. Rohit Sharma is mostly concerned about the team combination and the dew factor.

The tournament will start at the end of the winter season and will continue throughout the spring season. In this time span, the dew factor will be present during the matches, mostly at night.

“In February and March, dew is a big factor almost everywhere in India. Even in places like Mumbai, where it doesn’t get very cold, you still see heavy dew. I’d say 90 to 95 percent of grounds are affected,” the former India captain stated.

What will be the team combination for the T20 World Cup 2026?

Because of the dew factor, spinners can face a lot of trouble, which appears as the main concern for Rohit Sharma. The Indian team management will have to select the playing XI, keeping the dew factor in mind. Because of this, the team can hesitate to field an extra spinner.

India has multiple prolific spinners like Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel. But for the team, it will be difficult to put two proper spinners for a match, as it will reduce the space for the seamers.

In T20Is, the Men in Blue mostly formed their playing combination around three spinners – Varun, Kuldeep and Axar. If they want to follow the same pattern in the T20 World Cup 2026 as well, then at least one specialist will have to be on the bench.

Words of wisdom from Rohit Sharma

“The real challenge will be whether you can play Kuldeep and Varun together. If you do that, you are almost forced to go in with only two specialist seamers, and that’s not easy,” said Rohit Sharma during a recent interaction.

“If you go with three spinners, you have to drop a pacer, and that might not always be the right call. It all depends on how the captain and coach want to approach it,” Rohit Sharma added.

India will start their World Cup 2026 campaign on February 7 with a match against the USA cricket team. Team India is in group A along with the USA, Namibia, Pakistan and the Netherlands.

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