An Australian icon Brett Lee predicted that Suryakumar Yadav of Team India would be the Most Valuable Player during the 2026 T20 world cup. India will be led by Suryakumar in the main event in which they will be seeking to defend their title.
The right-hand batting batsman was on a rampage during the newly concluded T20I series against New Zealand. He did not only take India to the 4-1 series win, but also dominated with the bat. He scored 242 runs in five innings at the average of 80.66 and a strike rate of 196.74 and comprised three half-centuries.
The fact that Suryakumar is regaining his form just before the T20 world cup is a big relief to the Men in Blue who had suffered during 2025 in T20Is.
Brett Lee gave the prediction in an episode of the Mr. Cricket UAE podcast.
Furthermore, Brett Lee projected that Varun Chakaravarthy, Team India’s mystery spinner, would take the most wickets in the event.
“His form coming into this, the wickets will be prepared that will suit him, the way that he can bamboozle the batters, I think this is set for him, this will be his World Cup,” he said.
Varun had a stellar 2025, taking 36 wickets in 20 T20Is. Furthermore, he has an outstanding home record, taking 33 wickets in 15 games with an average of 13.06 and an economy rate of 7.65.
Brett Lee predicts T20 World Cup winner and top four teams
Brett Lee was also asked to predict the champions of the T20 World Cup 2026. He predicted that either India or Australia would win the title. When pressed to pick just one team, he chose Australia as the winner.
“It’ll be one of two, India or Australia. Don’t hate me, Australia will win, that’s my heart,” he said.
India is the reigning champion having won the tournament twice (in 2007 and 2024) and Australia once in 2021.
The Australian pacer who is well known made forecasts of India, Australia, England and New Zealand to reach the semi-finals. He said that the dark horse to him was New Zealand.
