India, March 28 -- Whether India's World Cup champions are ready to roll all over again for another two-month T20 extravaganza in peak physical and mental shape will be known in the coming days when the Mumbai Indians play their IPL 2026 opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders. It will be a good indicator since the core of India's T20 best players is in that squad.

Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, who swap leadership bands from country to club, both had a decent batting net on Friday. Tilak Varma, young and learning, sweated it out too. Jasprit Bumrah joined the squad late and rested through the pre-match training session on Saturday.

For once, with the ICC T20 World Cup slotted ahead of the IPL, coaches widely accept that players' ...