For a quiet sporting year, 2025 delivered quite a few scintillating stories. None more so than India’s women’s World Cup triumph, a fitting highlight in a year where the nation’s women athletes kept the tricolour flying high.From wrestling mats to boxing rings, shooting ranges to archery fields, and badminton courts to squash cages, a new generation of Indian women made their mark on the global stage.This was a year that gave a glimpse of what the next 12 months — and beyond — could look like and where the major stories would come from. Most noticeably in cricket.Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. showed the commercial and developmental promise of women’s cricket. A T20 World Cup title in July, on the back of the ODI World Cup, would elevate the women’s game into the stratosphere.The Twenty20 World Cup will also be of equal significance for the men’s team, who rode a rollercoaster. Shubman Gill’s mid-year rise to Test captaincy contrasted sharply with his late T20 World Cup omission, leaving the red-ball squad under Gautam Gambhir in flux — more so after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their Test retirements within a span of a week in May.Yet, in ODIs, the only format they are active internationally, the ageing legends continued to defy time and talk of retirement. Kohli’s hunger for runs remained undimmed, the three centuries this year a testament to it. Rohit, free from the grind of five-day cricket, looked rejuvenated. Together, even in transition, they remain central to India’s present, proving that evolution need not mean irrelevance.For many, 2025 was an “in-between” year, a pause after a whirlwind 2024, before the mega-event storm of 2026: the T20 World Cup, FIFA World Cup, Hockey World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Chess World Championship — and, for the curious, the first ever Enhanced Games, a multi-discipline event where performance-enhancing drugs will be actively encouraged.Story continues below this adT20s, T20s and more T20sIn the first six months of the year, 146 T20 games will be played on Indian soil. In contrast, there’s just one home Test lined up for the whole of 2026.Of these, 124 games will involve men’s teams — five T20Is between India and New Zealand in January, a warm-up to February’s T20 World Cup that will see a total of 35 matches across five venues in India (an additional 20 in Sri Lanka), followed by the 84-game Indian Premier League season, the largest ever. The Women’s Premier League will have 22 games, the same as previous seasons.It will all be very hectic and, dare we say, tedious.India’s chance to defend the T20 title at homeFor a nation that trips on T20 cricket, India’s fixation has only sporadically translated into on-field consistency. After winning the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup, they have reached the semifinals just twice and the final once. So, a World Cup at home gives the IPL nation a chance to assert its supremacy in international cricket.Story continues below this adThe T20 World Cup will also serve as a litmus test for the under-fire Gautam Gambhir. A successful title defence — India won the 2024 edition under Rahul Dravid — could overshadow the team’s disappointing Test run under him, at least until the next series, and buy him some breathing space ahead of the 2027 50-over World Cup.Once the T20 frenzy eases — though not completely, with the women’s T20 World Cup in England in July — the rest of the mega-events will surge at breakneck speed, beginning with the FIFA World Cup in the second half of 2026.Messi, Ronaldo and… TrumpThe biggest sports story, arguably, will be the FIFA World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada between June 11 and July 19.With 48 teams, this will be the biggest-ever edition. There are fears that the bloated size will rob the tournament of the element of jeopardy and render many group stage games pointless. But the thing about World Cups is they tend to find their own drama.Story continues below this adWe are still six months away but Italy have kept everyone interested with their up-and-(mostly) down qualification campaign. The Azzurri are the only major powerhouse yet to qualify. They will feature in a playoff tournament in March and will have to beat two opponents — Northern Ireland and then either Wales or Bosnia — to ensure they don’t complete the dubious hat-trick of missing three consecutive World Cups.The main tournament itself is awaiting perhaps the clash of the generation. If the World Cup sticks to its script — it seldom does — Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal should come face-to-face in the quarterfinals.For that to happen, both teams will have to top their groups and then win their respective Round of 32 and Round of 16 matches. For one of them, it could be the final international appearance, adding another layer to an already tasty match-up.But there are fears that the farewell World Cup of the two giants of the modern game will be overshadowed by Donald Trump. The US President’s policies — travel bans, strict visa rules and immigration crackdown — mean there is a strong political undertone to this World Cup and the stories from the stands (will ICE agents round-up diaspora fans, as they fear? Will the supporters of a team get a smooth entry into the country?) will be as compelling as the ones unfolding on the pitch.Story continues below this adCWG: Neeraj-Arshad showdown in Scotland?Four days after the FIFA World Cup ends, the Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow. The 11-day event — from July 23 to August 2 — will be one of the most downscaled editions of the Games, with just 10 sports.Most of India’s go-to medal events — shooting, badminton, hockey, wrestling — have been axed. Still, there will be plenty of Indian interest. None more so than in athletics, where the 2018 CWG champion Neeraj Chopra and defending gold medallist Arshad Nadeem could meet each other after underwhelming World Championships for both.The CWG will also be of importance to India as the country will host the 2030 edition, with the official handover to take place during the Games’ closing ceremony.Asian Games: The 100-medal challengeIn the build-up to the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the ‘iss baar, sau paar’ campaign was ridiculed initially but proved prophetic eventually. India — whose previous best performance was 70 medals in 2018 — surpassed expectations to win 107 medals, including 28 golds. The bar for the Class of 2026 is higher than ever.Story continues below this adThe Japan games will be a test for the track-and-field athletes and shooters, who together accounted for 51 medals in Hangzhou. The individual storylines, too, promise to be compelling.Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came back strongly in 2025 after the Olympic setback. They have shown they have it in them to defend their gold.Mirabai Chanu, fighting hard to stay fit, refuses to bow out despite multiple injuries. Her World Championship silver has raised hopes that 2026 could finally be the year when she ends her long wait for an Asiad medal.Vinesh Phogat is back on the mat, though the battles may not be confined to it. As she pursues a place in the Asian Games squad, expect a few off-the-mat bouts with the federation. Bet against her at your own risk.