ICC T-20 World Cup 2021: The Countdown Begins For Year’s Biggest Cricket Tournament!

ICC T-20 World Cup 2021: The Countdown Begins For Year’s Biggest Cricket Tournament!

Get ready for the biggest cricket carnival of the year, the ICC T-20 World Cup. International Cricket Council has revealed the schedule for the World Cup which will kick off on October 17, 2021. The tournament will take place in UAE and Oman under the hosting of the Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI). 

This will be the seventh edition of the tournament. ICC started T-20 World Cup in 2007 where India won the inaugural tournament. The last time the event was hosted in India was in 2016 and West Indies clinched both Men and Women trophies. The Caribbean will be defending their title this time. 

The tournament was supposed to host by Australia in 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic stopped all the outer activities. The hosting was given to India to hold the tournament in 2021. But due to the horrible of Coronavirus in India, the tournament moved to UAE and Oman. Though the host will be the same, BCCI. 

This time, there are as many as 16 teams that will be part of the tournament. These 16 have already been divided into two groups. The first group of 8 teams will play Round Robin matches to try and enter the Super 12s. The second group of 8 teams is already in the Super 12s.

Countries like Ireland, Oman, Scotland, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, etc are also part of the tournament along with major contenders like India, Pakistan, England, West Indies, etc. On Tuesday, ICC announced the matches scheduled for the tournament. India and Pakistan cricket fans will be now waiting for 24th October where two arch-rivals India and Pakistan will play against each other. 

Let’s Have A Quick Look On The Details Of Tournament

In case you have missed any updates on the tournament we have brought a quick summary for you.

Number of teams: 16

Total Number of matches:  45

8 teams will directly qualify for the super 12 groups. These eight teams have been selected through their rankings in the ICC Men T-20 World Cup team ranking as of 20th March 2021. The remaining four teams out of 12 will have to play qualifiers. 

In round 1, eight teams will be facing each other to get the place in super 12. These eight countries are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman, Namibia, and the Netherlands.

Here is the schedule of round 1,

The 8 teams which have directly made it into the super 12 are:

India, England, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and West Indies. 

After round 1, the top four teams will be added to the super 12 groups. In round 2, teams are divided into two groups. 

Group 1: England, Australia, West Indies, South Africa, two teams from round 1 i.e winner of group A and runner’s up from group B.

Here is the fixture of group 1,

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, two teams from round 1 i.e winner of group B and runner’s up from group A.

Fixture of group 2,

Knockout Stage:

Four teams from group 1 and group 2 will qualify for the knockout stages. These top two teams from each group.

First Semi-Final: The first semi-final will be played between the topper of Group 1 and the second team from group 2. The first semi-final will be held in Abu Dhabi on 10 November at 6 pm local time. 

Second Semi-Final: The Second semi-final will be played between the topper of Group 2 and the second team from group 1. The second semi-final will be hosted by Dubai on 11 November. 

Final: The final will be played between the winners of both semi-finals. The marquee clash of the tournament will take place in Dubai at 6 pm local time on 14 November, Sunday.

Here is the fixture of the knockout stage, 

ICC has kept a reserve day for both semi-finals and finals,