India vs Afghanistan is all over my feeds this week — a T20I series, a tight finish in Delhi, the usual chaos. And every time India plays anything, the same question lands in my inbox from American friends: okay, but where do I actually watch this?

Fair question, because cricket in the US is a rights maze that resets every couple of years. So rather than write you a guide that expires when this series does, here's the durable version: how to watch India's matches — and most international cricket — from the US, built around the checklist I run through myself before I hand any service my card number. I bounce between streaming services for a living, and cricket is the one sport where I still see smart people pay for the wrong thing.

Before you subscribe: the checklist

  • Confirm who actually holds the US rights to this series
  • Check whether you already get Willow through your TV provider
  • Pick your lane: standalone cricket app vs. live-TV bundle
  • Do the time-zone math before you pay
  • Don't buy an Indian streaming service expecting it to work here
  • Know what "free" actually gets you (spoiler: not much video)

Let me walk through each one, because the details are where people get burned.

Confirm who holds the rights

For matches played in India — like this Afghanistan series — the US broadcaster is almost always Willow TV. Willow has held US rights to India's home internationals for years, and it also carries most ICC tournaments, the IPL, and a pile of other boards' cricket. If India is playing at home, start from the assumption that Willow has it.

The wrinkle: when India tours other countries, the rights follow the host board, and those deals scatter. Some end up on Willow anyway; some land on ESPN+ or elsewhere. Cricket rights shuffle often enough that I'd never state a carriage deal as gospel — thirty seconds on willow.tv or the host board's site before a series starts will tell you exactly where it lives. Make that your reflex, not a specific channel name you memorized in 2024.

Check what you already have

Willow isn't only a streaming app — it's a TV channel, and it hides in the international or premium sports tiers of most big providers: Spectrum, Xfinity, DirecTV, Dish, and others. If anyone in your household ever asked for South Asian channels, there's a real chance you're already paying for Willow and don't know it. Search the channel guide for "Willow" before you spend a dime. I've watched someone subscribe to the app while the channel sat unwatched in their Xfinity lineup. Don't be that person.

Pick your lane: app or bundle

If you don't have it through cable, you've got two sensible routes.

The standalone app — Willow by Cricbuzz — runs about $10 a month, or roughly $80 for a year (check the site for current pricing; it moves). That's the cleanest option if cricket is the only thing you're buying. My honest review as someone who lives in streaming apps all day: it's functional but clunky. The interface feels a generation behind Netflix, the replay navigation tests your patience, and casting can be temperamental. And yet — it works, the streams are reliable on match day, and it's the one subscription I never actually cancel, because it's the only door to most of this content.

The bundle route is Sling TV, which offers Willow through its South Asian and add-on packages — in some configurations you can get Willow without paying for a full American channel lineup at all. If you also want ESPN and general sports channels, stacking Willow onto a Sling base plan (the base tiers run around $45–50 a month, add-ons extra) gets you everything in one interface, and Sling's app is meaningfully nicer to use. Prices and package names on Sling change more often than I change opinions about prestige dramas, so verify the current bundle on sling.com.

One more worth a look: some live-TV services carry Willow in their sports add-on tiers, and ESPN+ picks up occasional cricket from other boards. Neither is where India's home matches live, but if you already subscribe, check before buying anything new.

Do the time-zone math

This is the checklist item everyone skips and then regrets. An evening T20 in Delhi starts at 7:00 pm India time — that's 9:30 in the morning Eastern, 6:30 am Pacific. Test matches in India run overnight into early morning US time. Day games in Australia are worse.

Why does this matter for your wallet? Because if you can never watch live, a service's replay experience suddenly matters more than its live stream. Willow does offer replays and highlights, but if your actual life means you'll always be watching hours later while dodging the score, factor that into whether you want the app at all — or whether highlights on official YouTube channels scratch the itch for free.

Don't buy the Indian services

Every series, someone tells me they'll "just get Hotstar." The Indian streaming platforms that carry cricket domestically — JioHotstar and friends — are not available as US services, and their catalogs are different here where they exist at all. The US rights are sold separately, which is the entire reason Willow exists. Save yourself the frustrated evening.

And the obligatory word: the sketchy "free HD stream" sites that bloom during every India series are illegal, riddled with malware, and their streams die at the exact moment the match gets good. Not worth it on any axis.

Know what free actually gets you

Here's the honest answer: there is no reliable free way to watch India's matches live in the US, and an antenna does nothing for you — cricket isn't on broadcast TV here. What free gets you is still pretty good, though: ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary and live scorecards cost nothing and are genuinely great (I keep a tab open even while watching), official highlights usually hit YouTube shortly after play, and Willow occasionally runs free previews or select free matches as promotions. If your fandom is more "check the score, watch the highlights" than "watch every over," you may not need to subscribe at all. No shame in that.

This series, specifically (September 2026)

The time-sensitive part, clearly labeled so future readers can skip it: the India–Afghanistan T20Is are an India home series, carried in the US on Willow — via the app, Sling's Willow packages, or a cable international tier. Delhi's evening starts put the matches at mid-morning US Eastern time. If the series ends before you read this, everything above still applies to whatever India plays next.

My bottom line

If you're cricket-first and budget-conscious, the Willow by Cricbuzz annual plan (~$80/year) is the buy — clunky app, essential catalog. If you want cricket plus regular sports TV, Sling with the Willow add-on is the tidier household solution. Already have cable? Check your guide before spending anything. And if you're a casual, Cricinfo plus YouTube highlights is a legitimately complete free experience.

Cricket in America asks a little effort of you. Run the checklist once, and you're set for every series after this one.

Catch you at the toss. — Priya

— Priya Raman