Sri Lanka to host 2026 T20 World Cup with India

• Gains automatic qualification

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka who had a disastrous 2024 T20 World Cup failing to qualify for a place in the Super 8s has gained automatic qualification for the next edition of the T20 World Cup in 2026 as co-host with India.

The 2026 edition will feature 20 teams, the same number as the ongoing 2024 tournament.

With the Super 8 stage of the current tournament being decided the 12 automatic qualifiers based on rankings have been confirmed.

India and Sri Lanka qualify as hosts of the tournament while the other Super 8 teams apart from India are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, USA and the West Indies. 

The next three teams to qualify on a direct basis are New Zealand, (ranked 6th), Pakistan (ranked 7th) and Ireland (ranked 11th).

The remaining eight teams will be decided on a qualification round.

Scotland missed out on a direct qualification after failing to enter into the Super 8 stage of the 2024 tournament as Australia defeated them in their final group game. In their place, the defending champions England reached the Super 8 stage from Group B. 

Likewise, the Netherlands also missed out on Super 8 qualification from Group D with South Africa and Bangladesh coming through.

Sri Lanka has not hosted an ICC world event since 2012 when the fourth edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup and third edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup was held.

Sri Lanka had the chance to host the Under-19 World Cup in January-February 2024 but a dispute between the former Sports Minister and Sri Lanka Cricket ended with ICC suspending Sri Lanka, and thereby they lost the right to host the event which was moved to South Africa.