LAHORE: The International Cricket Council has reportedly finalized the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 schedule, with a high-octane clash between arch-rivals Pakistan and India scheduled for February 15.
According to Indian media reports, the 10th edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup is likely to be held between February 7 and March 8, with India and Sri Lanka confirmed as co-hosts for the 20-team tournament. The ICC is expected to officially announce the schedule on November 25.
Pakistan and India are reportedly placed in the same Group along with the United States, Namibia and the Netherlands. The arch-rivals will meet on February 15 in Colombo, with Pakistan playing all their matches in Sri Lanka.
The teams are divided into four groups of five, with the top two from each group advancing to the Super Eight stage, which will then be divided into two groups of four.
The top two teams from each Super Eight group will advance to the semifinals.
India enter the competition as the defending champions, having defeated South Africa in the final in Barbados earlier this year.
In particular, all 20 teams that are going to participate in the mega event have already been confirmed, with the qualification of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month.
The final is likely to be played in Ahmedabad or Colombo, depending on whether Pakistan qualifies, as India and Pakistan currently do not play bilateral cricket due to political tensions.
The United Arab Emirates have joined Nepal and Oman as the final three teams to qualify for next year’s T20 World Cup 2026 from the Asia-EAC region.
Along with hosts India and Sri Lanka, the other automatically qualified teams include the top seven teams from the 2024 T20 World Cup: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, United States and West Indies.
The three teams that qualified based on the T20I ranking are Pakistan, New Zealand and Ireland.
Regional qualifiers also secured their berths: Canada claimed the lone American spot, while Italy (making their T20 World Cup debut) and the Netherlands qualified from Europe.
Namibia and Zimbabwe took the two spots from the African qualifier.
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