The 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the tenth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Board of Control for Cricket in India and Sri Lanka Cricket from 7 February to 8 March 2026. Sri Lanka had previously hosted the competition in 2012 and India in 2016. A total of twenty teams competed in 55 matches across five venues in India and three in Sri Lanka. More than 1.3 million spectators attended the matches across the two nations.
Twenty teams competed in the tournament, which included the teams from the two hosts, six of the top seven teams from the previous edition, the four highest-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings not already qualified, and eight other teams determined through a series of regional qualifiers. Italy qualified for the Men's T20 World Cup for the first time.
India were the defending champions, having won the 2024 edition. They defended their title by defeating New Zealand by 96 runs in the final, becoming the first team to win two consecutive T20 World Cups, the first country to win the title at home, and the first team to win the tournament three times.
Background
The ICC Men's T20 World Cup is a biennial world cup for cricket in Twenty20 International (T20I) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was first played in 2007 in South Africa, and the 2026 tournament marked its tenth edition. The ninth edition, held in 2024 in the West Indies and the United States, was contested by 20 teams, and was won by India, who defeated South Africa in the final.
Host selection In November 2021, as part of the 2024–2031 ICC men's hosts cycle, the ICC announced that the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup would be played in India and Sri Lanka. Initially Sri Lanka Cricket proposed to host the entire tournament, however, due to expansion of the tournament to 20 teams from the previous edition and lack of cricket stadiums in Sri Lanka, it was decided to be co-hosted with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Sri Lanka had previously hosted the competition in 2012 and India in 2016.
Format The tournament's format remained the same as the previous edition. The 20 qualifying teams were divided into four groups of five each. In the group stage, each team played each of the other teams in the group once in a round-robin format, and the top two teams in each group advanced to the Super 8 stage, where the teams were placed into two groups of four teams each. Prior to the tournament, the ICC had announced the eight seeded teams based on the ICC T20I rankings, who were placed in predetermined positions in the Super 8 stage, irrespective of their position in the group stage. If an unseeded team qualified at the expense of a seeded team, it took the position of the corresponding seeded team that failed to qualify from their group. In the Super 8 stage, each team played against each of the other teams in the group once. The top two teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage, which consisted of two semi-finals, the winners of which faced off in the final. No points were carried over between stages.
Schedule In the 2023–2027 ICC Men's Future Tours Programme, the tournament was scheduled to be held in February–March 2026. The ICC announced the final schedule on 25 November 2025, with the tournament scheduled to take place from 7 February to 8 March 2026. The teams will play 55 matches across five venues in India and three venues in Sri Lanka. On 26 January 2026, the ICC announced that warm-up matches would be held from 2 to 6 February.
Prize money The ICC allocated a pool of $11.25 million in prize money for the tournament. The prize for winning was $2.45 million, with each team receiving an additional $31,154 for each match they won, excluding the semi-finals and final.
+ Prize money allocation for the tournament Place Teams Amount per side Total Champions $2.45 million $2.45 million Runners-up $1.28 million $1.28 million Semi-finalists $787,500 $1.575 million 5th–8th place (Super 8) $382,500 $1.53 million 9th–12th place (Group stage) $247,500 $0.99 million 13th–20th place (Group stage) $225,000 $1.8 million Match winners $31,154 $1.62 million Total $11.25 million
Marketing
In November 2025, former Indian captain Rohit Sharma was named as an ambassador for the tournament. The official theme song for the tournament, "Feel the Thrill", produced and performed by Anirudh Ravichander with lyrics by Heisenberg and Raqueeb Alam, was released on 30 January 2026. A remix version featuring Sri Lankan artist Dinesh Gamage, sub-titled "Tamil Sinhalese version", which replaced Hindi verses with Tamil and Sinhala verses, was released on 7 February. A promotional event, the "Captains' Carnival", featuring all the team captains and social media influencers, was held on 5 February in Mumbai and Colombo. On 6 February, the ICC announced that an opening ceremony would be held at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of the third match of the opening day between India and the United States. Badshah, Nora Fatehi, Rishab Sharma, and Sivamani performed at the opening ceremony.
Qualification
The hosts, India and Sri Lanka, along with the top seven teams from the 2024 tournament: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, the United States, and the West Indies; directly qualified for the 2026 tournament. The remaining three direct qualification places were allocated to the next best-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings as on 30 June 2024, that had not finished in the top seven: Ireland, New Zealand, and Pakistan. The eight remaining places were filled through the ICC's regional qualifiers, consisting of two teams each from Africa and Europe regions, three teams combined from Asia and East Asia-Pacific and one team from the Americas. In June 2025, Canada qualified for the World Cup from the Americas region, followed by Italy and Netherlands from the Europe region in July. In October 2025, Namibia and Zimbabwe qualified from the Africa region, followed by Nepal, Oman, and United Arab Emirates from the combined Asia-EAP qualifier. Italy qualified for the men's T20 World Cup for the first time. Ahead of the 2026 tournament, Bangladesh withdrew from the tournament, and they were replaced by the next highest ranked T20I team: Scotland.
+ Teams qualified for the tournament Method of qualification No. of teams Teams T20I ranking Hosts 2 1 8 2024 Men's T20 World Cup(Top teams from the previous tournament, excluding hosts) 6 (7) 10 2 9 3 5 18 7 ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings 4 (3) 12 4 6 14 Americas Qualifier 1 19 Europe Qualifier 2 26 13 Africa Qualifier 2 15 11 Asia–EAP Qualifier 3 16 20 17 Total 20
Venues On 6 November 2025, the ICC announced the finalised venues for the World Cup, five in India: Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Eden Gardens in Kolkata and Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai; and three in Sri Lanka: R. Premadasa Stadium and Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground in Colombo and Pallekele Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
Venues in India Ahmedabad Chennai Delhi Narendra Modi Stadium M. A. Chidambaram Stadium Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium Capacity: 132,000 Capacity: 39,000 Capacity: 55,000 Matches: 7 (Final) Matches: 7 Matches: 6 Kolkata Mumbai Eden Gardens Wankhede Stadium Capacity: 68,000 Capacity: 33,108 Matches: 7 (Semi-final 1) Matches: 8 (Semi-final 2)
Venues in Sri Lanka Colombo Kandy R. Premadasa Stadium Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground Pallekele International Cricket Stadium Capacity: 35,000 Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 35,000 Matches: 8 Matches: 5 Matches: 7
Squads
Each team was allowed a maximum squad size of 15 players and was required to submit the provisional squad to the ICC by 8 January 2026. The teams were allowed to make changes to the squads until 31 January 2026. Any changes after this required permission from the ICC's technical committee.
Match officials On 30 January 2026, the ICC released the list of match referees and umpires for the tournament.
Match referees
Umpires
Warm-up matches A total of 16 warm-up matches were played from 2 to 6 February, involving 18 teams participating in the World Cup in addition to the India A and Sri Lanka A teams. The warm-up matches were held at four venues in India: BCCI Centre of Excellence Grounds 1 & 2 in Bengaluru, M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, and DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai; and three in Sri Lanka: Colombo Cricket Club Ground, R. Premadasa Stadium and SSC Cricket Ground in Colombo. Sri Lanka and England played a three-match T20I series from 30 January to 3 February at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium in Kandy as preparation for the World Cup.
Group stage The ICC announced the groups and fixtures on 25 November 2025, with group stage played from 7 to 20 February. The 20 teams were divided into four groups of five with each team facing the other teams in the group. The group stage featured a total of 40 matches. The opening match was played between Netherlands and Pakistan at the SSC Cricket Ground on 7 February. The following table lists teams in order of their initial group stage seedings.
Group A Group B Group C Group D
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Super 8 stage The top two teams from the four groups advanced to the Super 8 stage, where they were divided into two groups of four teams each. In the Super 8 stage, each team played the others in their respective group in a round-robin format, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals.
Prior to the tournament, eight teams were pre-seeded for the Super 8 stage based on the T20I rankings at the time: Australia, India, South Africa, and the West Indies in Group 1; England, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in Group 2. Australia did not qualify for the Super 8 stage, and their place was taken by Zimbabwe. Due to the pre-seeding, all of the group stage winners ended up in Group 1, and all the runners-up in Group 2. The ICC faced criticism for its pre-seeding system with critics also commenting that its tournaments have always been similarly unfair. The ICC replied that the pre-seedings were made to enable fans to safely arrange travel for their team's games.
Qualification Super 8 stage Group 1 Group 2 (Top 2 teams from each group)
Group 1
Group 2
Knockout stage The knockout stage consisted of two semi-finals played on 4 and 5 March, and the final on 8 March. Both semi-finals and the final had a reserve day available on 5, 6, and 9 March respectively. If a reserve day had come into play, the match would not have been restarted but instead resumed from the previous day's play, if there was any; with the semi-finals commencing at 15:00 and final at 19:00 (both UTC+05:30). In the event of no minimum play (at least 10 overs per side) on the scheduled day and the reserve day, in the semi-finals, the team that finished higher in the Super 8 stage would progress to the final, and if no play were possible in the final, the teams would be declared as joint-winners. If any match ended in a tie, a Super Over would be used to determine the winner. If the scores in the Super Over were also tied, subsequent Super Overs would be played until there was a result.