India’s last outing at the Wankhede Stadium was against the USA in the ICC T20 World Cup. Though it gave India a winning start, the victory was anything but smooth. And had it not been for the 84-run innings from skipper Suryakumar Yadav, the defending champions could have been in deep trouble at the start of the tournament.
On Thursday, the Indian team will once again take the field at one of its favourite venues, which offers a pitch with red soil and a green top, idle conditions for pacers and batters. However, this time, India will be up against England and the prize on the line will be a place in the final.
Set for a third consecutive semifinal clash at the T20 World Cups, India and England have a growing history in the tournament. Both teams after winning the semifinals in the last two editions went on to lift the T20 World Cup. England beat India by 10 wickets in 2022, and India returned the favour in 2024 with a 68-run win.
England have played two matches at this venue in this edition. They won by a mere four runs against Nepal and lost against the West Indies by 30 runs. While both these opponents failed to make it to the semis, the English have grown into their own. On the other hand, India have played only one game here. But the amount of cricket the likes of Suryakumar, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma and Jasprit Bumrah have played here, there shouldn’t be any issue of unfamiliarity.
It will also be another chance for opener Abhishek Sharma to regain his form. Against the same opponents, he had smashed 135 off 54 balls in the Indian team’s 150-run win in February 2025. However, England are in no mood to allow Abhishek to produce an encore.
“I do hope Abhishek doesn’t play the same knock again. We’re very well planned for the game and we are focusing on Thursday night,” said Sam Curran.
“We’ve got two days’ training, so we’ll get used to the surroundings, dimensions of the grounds, and read the pitch. You play at these stadiums so much, you get used to different conditions. Back in Sri Lanka, we have seen a spin friendly track… in India things are a bit different. We have played two matches here, and I think it’s going to be very quiet on Thursday night,” added Curran with a confident smile.
It is one of the most iconic venues and hosts a sea of fans during the Indian team’s matches. “As a young cricketer, you dream of playing India in a semifinal of the World Cup. It’s normally a pretty good wicket, small ground, so I’m probably expecting a really high-scoring game. It’s just nice having played at the ground many times, so there’s not many unknowns for us,” said Curran.
England have endured their fair share of ups and downs but they dominated Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand in the Super 8 stage. “It was a good stage, we got to know many things… however, it doesn’t really matter now, when it comes down to the World Cup semifinal. If there’s ever a time we want to play our perfect game, it’s probably Thursday night. We’ve all been chipping in at different times but we know in T20 cricket it probably just takes a couple of our guys to come good with the bat and good with the ball,” he said.
He said that playing a lot of cricket against India, especially at this venue, gives the team an opportunity to play freely. “India are a quality side, but we’ve played a lot of cricket here. Most of our players have played in the IPL and against India. We’re not fearing anything and I’m sure both teams are really excited by the challenge of Thursday night and hopefully, the perfect game for us happens,” he said.