The anticipation surrounding the T20 World Cup 2026 has grown after it was announced that Pakistan and India will again meet one another at the group stage. Their confrontation at the 2025 Asia Cup had attracted immense publicity yet even such a heated act has not made the organisers to separate both the competitors into different brackets in the next year’s mega tournament.
Fresh reports of the Indian and Sri Lankan media suggest that the ICC is almost finalizing the groups and the schedule. World Cup shall include 20 teams, grouped into four categories consisting of five teams and the best two teams in each category will enter the Super Eight round which shall determine the semifinalists.
The most prominent one is the Pakistan-India game which is likely to be played on 15 February in Colombo. The rest of the teams within their group are probably Netherlands, Namibia, and USA. A number of well known Pakistan-India matches have been held in Colombo in the past and this showdown is further hyped by that.
According to the initial proposal, the event will be held in Sri Lanka and India. India will have matches in major cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Ahmedabad whereas Sri Lanka will have games in Colombo and Kandy.
The tournament will be held between 7 February and 8 March and the ICC will formally declare the complete schedule on 25 November.
There are also reports that Pakistan will host all their group matches in Sri Lanka so that there will be a smooth and neutral atmosphere. The final is at the moment to be held in Ahmedabad but in case Pakistan gets to the final, the match would probably be moved to Colombo. The same will be the case with the semifinals- in case Pakistan qualifies their knock out matches will be hosted in Sri Lanka.
There will also be strong combinations in the other category. One pool can include Sri Lanka, Australia, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Oman. Another one might unite England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Nepal and Italy, whereas the final group might consist of South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, UAE, and Canada.
As Pakistan and India finally come into contact in the global arena, anticipations and hopes regarding the 2026 T20 world cup are better than ever.
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