2026 Men's T20 World Cup

2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
Dates	February – March 2026
Administrator(s)	International Cricket Council
Cricket format	Twenty20 International
Tournament format(s)	Group stage, Super 8s and Knockout stage
Host(s)	India; Sri Lanka
Participants	20
Matches	55
Official website	t20worldcup.com
	← 2024 2028 →

The 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be the tenth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. It is scheduled to be hosted by the defending champion, India along with Sri Lanka from February to March 2026.^[1]^[2]

Background

The ICC Men's T20 World Cup is a biennial T20I tournament played between men's national teams, organized by International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament held every two years, was first played in 2007 in South Africa.^[3] The last tournament held in 2024 in the West Indies and the United States was contested by 20 teams.^[4]^[5] India are the defending champions, having defeated South Africa in the final of the previous edition.^[6]

Host selection

In November 2021, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that India and Sri Lanka will co-host the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. This will be the first time for India and Sri Lanka that they will host a T20 World Cup together.^[7] Sri Lanka first hosted the T20 World Cup in 2012 and India hosted in 2016.^[8] Sri Lanka proposed to host this tournament alone. But due to lack of stadiums in Sri Lanka, International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to co-host with India.^{[citation needed]}

Format

Tournament's format remained the same as previous edition. The 20 qualifying teams will be divided into four groups of five teams; all the five teams in a group will play with all the others – for a total of ten matches – and the top two teams in each group will advance to the Super 8 stage. The advanced 8 teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each; all the advanced teams in an advanced group will play with all the others in that group – for a total of six matches – and the top two teams in each advanced group will advance to the knockout stage.^[9]

Qualification

India and Sri Lanka directly qualified for the tournament as co-hosts.^[10] They will be joined by the top eight teams from the previous edition who get qualified automatically, and since India finished in the top eight in the previous edition, the best three teams (other than the ones already qualified) from the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings will also qualify for the tournament.^[11] The remaining eight teams will be decided by regional qualifiers,^[12] two teams each from Africa^[13]^[14]^[15] and Europe,^[16]^[17]^[18] three teams from Asia and East Asia-Pacific region combined,^[19]^[20]^[21] along with one team from the Americas region.

List of teams qualified for the 2026 T20WC
Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Venues	No. of teams	Teams
Hosts	16 November 2021	—	2	India
Hosts	16 November 2021	—	2	Sri Lanka
2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup (Top teams from previous tournament)	17 June 2024	United States West Indies	7	Afghanistan
				Australia
				Bangladesh
				England
				South Africa
				United States
				West Indies
ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings (Top teams, not qualified yet)	29 June 2024	—	3	Ireland
				New Zealand
				Pakistan
Africa Qualifier			2	Zimbabwe
Africa Qualifier			2	Nigeria
Americas Qualifier			1	Argentina
Asia & East Asia Pacific Qualifier		Malaysia	3	Nepal
				Samoa
				Japan
Europe Qualifier			2	Scotland
Europe Qualifier			2	Italy
Total			20