ICC shortlists venues for 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka
The 20-team tournament will be played at three venues in Sri Lanka and five in India
ESPNcricinfo staff
06-Nov-2025 • 5 hrs ago
Ahmedabad will host the final of the 2026 T20 World Cup, unless Pakistan qualify for it • Associated Press
The ICC has finalised Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai as the venues in India for the 2026 men's T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Sri Lanka as well. It is understood the ICC has shortlisted two venues in Colombo and Kandy as the three venues in Sri Lanka.
The T20 World Cup is set to begin on February 7 and will conclude with the final in Ahmedabad on March 8. According to PTI, the ICC is likely to release the schedule next week, with just about three months to go for the start of the tournament. It is understood that the majority of the participating countries have been waiting for the ICC to inform them about the grouping of teams as well as the schedule. The ICC is also yet to release ticketing information for the tournament.
Pakistan will play all their games 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 make the final, the fixture will be held in Sri Lanka.
The 2026 T20 World Cup will have the same format as the previous edition - 20 teams split into four groups of five each, with every team playing the others once. The top two teams from each group will progress to the Super-eight stage, where they will be placed into two groups of four. The top two sides from each Super-eight group will then qualify for the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-final will meet in the final.
Apart from hosts India and Sri Lanka, the other teams with automatic qualification to the tournament were the top seven teams from the 2024 T20 World Cup - Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, United States of America and West Indies. The three teams that qualified on the basis of their T20I rankings were New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland.
Canada took the lone spot from the Americas Qualifier. Italy, first time T20 World Cup participants, and Netherlands qualified from the five-team tournament in Europe. Namibia and Zimbabwe grabbed the two spots from the eight-team Africa qualifier before Nepal, Oman and UAE made it from the Asia-EAP round.
India are the defending champions, having beaten South Africa in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados.