Utilizing a half -diallel mating design, eight parental genotypes were crossed to generate F1 crosses, under water deficit (rainfed) conditions. Analysis of variance of combining ability revealed the significant (p<0.01) influence of both general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) on the 17 traits under study. C306 was identified as the superior general combiner for traits such as plant height, peduncle length, thousand grain weight, biological yield per plant, and grain yield per plant. UP2572 exhibited the best general combining ability for canopy temperature depression, flag leaf area, and awn length. The cross C306×WH1142 was identified as the best combination for days to heading, biological yield per plant, and grain yield per plant, while for grain filling duration and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the cross PBW660×WH1080 was identified as the best. Non-additive gene action predominated across all the traits examined. The dominance ratio revealed that the dominance gene action governed fourteen traits except for days to heading, days to maturity, and the NDVI those demonstrating overdominance. The identified parental lines and cross-combinations represent useful genetic resources that can withstand water deficits, and their progenies in later generations demonstrating superior trait performances over those of their parents can be employed in breeding for water deficit stress tolerance. Furthermore, the genetic insights obtained can be used to develop breeding strategies for improving drought tolerance traits, which will lead to the development of resilient wheat cultivars for water-deficit environments.