ICC Men's T20 WC: Gurdaspur-born Dilpreet Bajwa to captain Canadian cricket team

Gurdaspur-born Dilpreet Bajwa will captain the Canadian cricket team in the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Bajwa, who shifted to Canada in 2020, last year became the first ever Canadian to score a century in the Global T20 Canada Tournament for Montreal Tigers. In some of his past interviews, Bajwa claimed to have faced rejection while playing in Punjab — a move which made him shift his base to Canada.

Making their T20 World Cup debut in 2024, Canada had finished fourth in the group stage, but had managed to secure three points. Their run included a 12-run win over European side Ireland. The side made it to this edition of the tournament by winning the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Regional Final. The team played six games and won all of them, thus topping the table and booking their ticket for the T20 World Cup.

During the Americas Regional Qualifier, Shivam Sharma's off-spin (11 wickets at 7.81) and Kaleem Sana's left-arm pace (10 wickets at 7.5) proved to be quite effective. On the batting end, the side has attacking batter Nicholas Kirton in their ranks, who can expect good support from fellow southpaw Yuvraj Samra, who has a strike-rate of 160.72. Canada's task will be cut out from the start as their opening group features South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and the UAE. They begin their campaign against South Africa in Ahmedabad on February 9, 2026.

The Canadian media though claimed that coach Ingleton Liburd, a former Canada international player, had introduced the 20-member squad including Nicholas Kirton as skipper. However, Bajwa was replaced Kirton as skipper for the tournament. It was in 2024, Kirton had replaced former skipper Saad Bin Zafar.

Squad: Dilpreet Bajwa (C), Ajayveer Hundal, Ansh Patel, Dilon Heyliger, Harsh Thaker, Jaskarandeep Buttar, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Ravinderpal Singh, Saad Bin Zafar, Shivam Sharma, Shreyas Movva and Yuvraj Samra.