The 2026 T20 World Cup begins on 7 February in Sri Lanka, with the Netherlands facing Pakistan in the opening match of the competition. It is the first game being played in group A of the tournament, which consists of the following teams: India, Pakistan, Netherlands, Namibia and USA.
The Sinhalese Sports Club Cricket Ground (SSC) in Colombo is the venue of the opening game, which has a capacity of 10,000. The first match at the stadium is the Netherlands vs Pakistan.
20 teams are competing in the World Cup, with four groups containing five teams each. Since 2014, there has been a different winner in each T20 final, with five different winners being crowned the champions of the competition in the last five tournaments. Each group sees the top two teams progress to the next group stage, with two groups containing four teams.
The defending champions of the competition, India, take on USA in the two teams’ first game on home soil in Mumbai. The Men in Blue lifted the T20 title back in 2024 after beating South Africa in the final, by 176 runs to 169. India face South Africa on 4 February in a warm-up match before the competition gets underway three days later.
India won the Asia Cup T20 in September, defeating Pakistan in the final of the competition by five wickets. The pair will meet on 15 February during the group stage, on matchday three.
Fellow hosts Sri Lanka are in group B, along with Australia, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Oman. Sri Lanka take on Ireland in their opening match of this year’s competition. The match is being played in Colombo, as Sri Lanka look to kickstart their campaign with a win at home.
Australia enter the tournament following their glory in the Ashes, after beating England 4-1 in the Series, which was wrapped up before Christmas Day. The Aussies begin their group stage with a match against Ireland, who will be playing their second match when they meet the 2025 Ashes winners. Australia’s warm-up match before their beginning their tournament is against the Netherlands, who won three of their four qualifying games.
Group C contains the West Indies, England, Scotland, Italy and Nepal. The Three Lions will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing outing in Australia for the Ashes, as England face Nepal in their first contest at the upcoming competition. The 2022 winners will take on the West Indies, who won the T20 World Cup in 2016, in the third match of the group stage.
South Africa will be looking to better their last performance in the T20 World Cup, where they finished as runners-up. The Proteas are in group D, along with New Zealand, Afghanistan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
The last group stage game will take place on 20 February, with the top two from each group going through to the second stage of the competition. The next stage will again see a group stage phase, containing the best teams from the tournament, before the top two from each group qualify for the semi-finals to decide who advances to the final.
England have reached the semi-finals at all four of the last T20 World Cup competitions, the only team to do so. However, they only won one of those four tournaments, winning the 2022 final against Pakistan.
Three nations have won the T20 World Cup twice, with those being England, India and the West Indies. They are the sides with the joint-most wins since the beginning of the competition.
Eight different grounds will be used across the tournament, but the venue for the final of the T20 World Cup is either the Narendra Modi Stadium or the Premadasa Cricket Ground. The first venue is in Ahmedabad, India, which is the world’s biggest cricket stadium. The 132,000-capacity ground will potentially host the final, which will take place on 8 March. The second venue is in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which has a capacity of 35,000. The final will only be played in Colombo if Pakistan reach the final of the tournament.
