On March 15, the International Cricket Council (ICC) approved the qualifications for the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in 2026. In a recent executive board meeting held in Dubai, the world cricket governing body announced the teams and provided details on how countries might advance to the World Cup.
The 2026 competition is slated to take place in February and March, and India and Sri Lanka will share hosting duties. India hosted the tournament in 2016 and Sri Lanka in 2012.
The T20 World Cup 2026 will see 20 countries competing in 55 matches, following the same format as the 2024 edition that will take place in the United States and the West Indies beginning on June 2. Twelve of these 20 teams, including Sri Lanka and India, the co-hosts, will automatically qualify. Along with automatic qualification, the top eight teams from the T20 World Cup 2024 will share the remaining places with the next-highest-ranked teams. Regional qualifiers will determine the final eight spots in the interim.
The ICC Board also gave its approval to the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualification process. There will be twelve automatic qualifiers for the event, which takes place in Sri Lanka and India. The next highest-ranked teams on the ICC Men’s T20I rankings table as of June 30, 2024, will complete the remaining berths, which will range from 2-4 depending on host finishing positions. These teams will include the joint hosts and the top eight teams from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Regional qualifiers will be used to determine the final eight teams, according to an ICC press statement.
Qualification places for the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup:
- Hosts: 2 teams (India and Sri Lanka)
- Top 8 teams from T20 World Cup 2024 edition
- Two highest-ranked ICC T20 teams after the top ten sides
- Europe Qualifiers: 2 teams
- Asia Qualifiers: 2 teams
- Africa Qualifiers: 2 teams
- East Asia-Pacific Qualifier: 1 team
- Americas Qualifier: 1 team
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