T20 World Cup 2026: Groups, timings, venues and everything you want to know

The 2026 T20 World Cup will begin on February 7 (11am local time), with Pakistan taking on Netherlands in the first game, and will run till March 8. The first match will be held at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. Two venues have been marked for the final - Ahmedabad or Colombo - based on whether Pakistan qualify for it.

Here's the full T20 World Cup 2026 schedule.

There is significant uncertainty surrounding the Group A game between India and Pakistan on February 15. Pakistan have said they will boycott the game and if they do so, they will be forfeiting two points, and will also suffer a net run-rate penalty.

India and Sri Lanka will co-host the T20 World Cup 2026. This is the first time since 2012 that Sri Lanka are hosting a major ICC tournament. India have hosted five men's ODI World Cups before - four 50-over editions in 1987, 1996, 2007 and 2011 and one 20-over edition in 2016.

The World Cup will be played across eight venues: the MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chennai), Arun Jaitley Stadium (New Delhi), Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), Eden Gardens (Kolkata), Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad), R. Premadasa Stadium (Colombo), Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground (Colombo) and Pallekele International Cricket Stadium (Kandy).

There are 20 teams in the T20 World Cup again, after the tournament expanded in 2024. Hosts India and Sri Lanka earned direct qualification while seven other teams, which made the Super Eight stage of the 2024 edition, also gained automatic qualification - Afghanistan, Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies, USA and Bangladesh. The remaining three direct qualification spots were chosen based on the T20I team rankings - New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland.

Earlier this year, Bangladesh cited security concerns for their players in India. The ICC did not cede to their claims and told Bangladesh to play in India or forfeit their place. Bangladesh did not concede ground either, and so they were replaced by Scotland, who were the best ranked team not to initially be part of the tournament.

That leaves eight spots. Italy and Netherlands made it through the European qualifier, while Canada got through the Americas qualifier. Nepal, Oman and UAE progressed from the Asia qualifier, while Namibia and Zimbabwe were the two qualifying teams from Africa region. Italy will be making their T20 World Cup debut this year.

The 20 teams have been divided into four groups of five teams each. These are the groups . The teams play each other once, with the top two sides from each group making it to the Super Eight stage, where there will be two groups of four teams each. The top two teams from these groups will progress to the semi-final.

Some teams have been allotted pre-decided seedings:

X1 - India, X2 - Australia, X3 - West Indies, X4 - South Africa
Y1 - England, Y2 - New Zealand, Y3 - Pakistan, Y4 - Sri Lanka

If any of these seeded teams do not make it to the Super Eights, then their place will be taken by the team that does.

For example, in group D which includes South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan, if Afghanistan qualify ahead of South Africa, they will become X4. If they qualify ahead of New Zealand, they will become Y2.

The fixtures for the Super Eight stage, starting February 21, are already listed with the teams' seedings. No points will be carried forward from the first round to the second.

A Super Over will decide every tied match, and if that ends in a tie, there will be another Super Over, and so on until a result is achieved.

In case of rain or bad weather in the group stage and Super Eight matches, each team will have to be able to bat at least five overs for a result to be declared. However, as in the previous two editions, the two semi-finals and the final require each team to bat a minimum of ten overs for a result to be possible.

Unlike in 2024, both semi-finals and the final have reserve days. Each semi-final comes with a total of 210 minutes of additional time, down from 250 two years ago. There will be 90 additional minutes available on the day of the match and 120 on the reserve day.

The final - on both its scheduled day and reserve day - comes with 120 minutes of additional time.

If any of these matches are shortened (say, to ten overs per side) and it re-starts on the scheduled day, but cannot be completed that day because of weather interruptions, it will resume on the reserve day as the same shortened game from where play was abandoned.

If any of these matches are shortened (say, to ten overs per side) and it doesn't re-start on the scheduled day because of weather interruptions, it will resume on the reserve day as a full 20-over game from where play was abandoned on the previous day.

If weather conditions do not allow a semi-final to be completed, the team that finished first in their group in the Super Eight stage will progress to the final. The same rule will be applicable if the Super Over, after a tied semi-final, is also not possible because of poor weather.

If the final (or the Super Over after a tied final) is abandoned because of poor weather, the two teams will be declared joint winners.

Six teams have previously won the men's T20 World Cup. West Indies, England and India are the only teams to win it twice. India, who won the inaugural edition in 2007, are currently the defending champions.

Here is the full list of winners:

2007 - India
2009 - Pakistan
2010 - England
2012 - West Indies
2014 - Sri Lanka
2016 - West Indies
2021 - Australia
2022 - England
2024 - India

Apart from the various TV channels and streaming sites that will broadcast the T20 World Cup live, you can follow ball-by-ball action on ESPNcricinfo. You can also keep a tab of the matches on our live scores page.

The T20 World Cup can be followed live in the following places around the world:

India - Star Sports Network and JioHotstar*
Pakistan - PTV and Myco and digitally via Tamasha, ARY Zapp and Tapmad
USA and Canada - WillowTV
West Indies - ESPN
England - Sky Sports with digital streaming available on NOW
Italy - Sky Italia Australia and New Zealand - Prime Video in Australia and Sky Sport NZ in New Zealand
South Africa, Uganda, and Namibia - SuperSport and its app
UAE and the entire MENA region - STARZPLAY, with broadcast coverage on CricLife MAX
Sri Lanka - DialogTV, Dialog Play on mobile and ThePapare.com

*ESPNcricinfo and JioHotstar are part of the same company.