Kolkata: The iconic Eden Gardens was all set to host a blockbuster on Sunday as the defending champions India will face the West Indies in their last match of the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8s, which will be a virtual quarterfinal that will decide the fate of both teams.
Both India and the West Indies have lost one and won one match in the Super 8, Group 1, and are tied on two points.
The semifinal equation is straightforward for both teams: the winner of the encounter will advance to the next round, along with South Africa, which has already confirmed their spot from Group A.
India got into the contest after registering a dominant 72-run win against Zimbabwe in their second Super 8s match played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday. They lost the first clash against South Africa and have two points from two matches.
Despite the dominant win against Zimbabwe in their last match, their prime bowler Varun Chakravarthy's form will be in focus when they face the two-time champions, West Indies, in the must-win clash. Varun gave away 35 runs against Sikandar Raza's team and was able to take only one wicket. Against the Proteas, Varun leaked 47 runs and took only one wicket. India will hope that the mystery spinner gets back to what he does best when he returns to his IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), home ground.
The positive thing for the hosts is the return to form of opener Abhishek Sharma, who scored a fifty against Zimbabwe after getting three zeroes in the previous four matches he played in this World Cup.
India have played only one T20 World Cup match at Eden Gardens. In the 2016 T20 World Cup, India faced Pakistan on this ground, where the Indian team was successful in winning by six wickets. India faced the West Indies three times at Eden Gardens in T20Is in 2022 and won all the matches.
Meanwhile, Pakistan signed off their campaign in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 with a narrow five-run win over Sri Lanka, but the victory was not enough to take them into the next stage due to an inferior Net Run Rate.
Although Pakistan won the match, they failed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 runs, which meant they could not overtake New Zealand on Net Run Rate and were eliminated from the tournament.
