Feb 11, 2026 : Indian team to play a T20 World Cup match in ‘very poor’ air?

For today’s episode of Aaj Ka AQI, Newslaundry visited the Arun Jaitley Stadium in central Delhi. The stadium is one of the venues of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. The Indian men’s team is scheduled to play a match against Namibia at the stadium tomorrow.

At 11 am today, the closest DPCC monitoring station at ITO recorded the AQI at 360 – the ‘very poor’ category. Our portable air quality monitoring system pegged the AQI at 345, also ‘very poor’. Unless there is a dramatic shift in the weather, fans and players alike should expect to breathe hazardous air during the match.

New action plans for the National Capital Region (NCR) were recently submitted to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) by twelve cities and four states. Delhi’s objective is to improve its annual average AQI by 15 percent in 2026, with specific targets to reduce annual average PM2.5 and PM10 levels by 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Watch.

This show is part of a collaborative campaign to tackle air pollution. Here’s how you can join the Fight To Breathe. Click here to power this campaign.