2026 T20 World Cup gets all its 20 teams: Details
What's the story
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have secured a spot in the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. The UAE achieved this feat after defeating Japan by eight wickets in the Asia-EAP Qualifier tournament. They now join Nepal and Oman as the last three teams to qualify for the 2026 edition of the tournament.
Qualified teams
A look at teams that have qualified for T20 WC
Along with hosts India and Sri Lanka, the top-seven teams from the 2024 T20 World Cup qualified for the tournament. These include Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, USA and West Indies. New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland qualified on basis of their T20I Rankings. Canada secured the lone Americas Qualifier position while Italy and Netherlands qualified from a five-team tournament in Europe. Namibia and Zimbabwe secured their spots from the eight-team Africa qualifier. They were followed by Nepal, Oman, and UAE who completed the list in the nine-team Asia-EAP round.
Tournament progression
A look at format of the tournament
The 2026 tournament will follow a similar format as its predecessor with 20 teams divided into four groups of five each. Each team will play others once in a round-robin format with top two from each group progressing to Super 8 stage. In the Super 8 stage, teams will be divided into two groups of four based on pre-tournament seedings for another round-robin phase. The top two sides from each group will qualify for the semi-finals. The winners of these matches will then meet in the final.