The ICC has shortlisted Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai as venues in India for the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, which will also be co-hosted by Sri Lanka.
Kandy and Colombo are two of the three places in Sri Lanka. The third has not yet been completed.
The tournament is likely to start on February 7 and conclude with Ahmedabad hosting the final on March 8. The International Cricket Council is likely to announce the schedule next week, with just three months to go until the start of the tournament.
Pakistan will play all its matches in Sri Lanka as per the agreement reached between the BCCI and PCB for India and Pakistan to play at neutral venues during multi-nation tournaments hosted by the other country. If Pakistan reaches the final, the match will be played in Sri Lanka.
The 2026 T20 World Cup will have the same format as the previous edition – with 20 teams divided into four groups of five each, with each team playing the others once. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Eight stage, where they will be divided into two groups of four. The top two teams from each Super-8 group will then advance to the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners will meet in the final.
Apart from hosts India and Sri Lanka, the other teams that automatically qualified for the tournament were the top seven teams from the T20 World Cup 2024 – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, USA and West Indies. The three teams who qualified based on T20I rankings are New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland.
Canada earned the only spot from the Americas qualifiers. Italy, who are making their T20 World Cup debut, and the Netherlands have qualified from the five-team tournament in Europe. Namibia and Zimbabwe clinched the two places in the eight-team African qualifiers before Nepal, Oman and the United Arab Emirates qualified from the Asian round.
India are the defending champions, having beaten South Africa in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados.
