Amid the anticipation, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday (July 16) confirmed the groupings of the upcoming T20 World Cup, slated to be held in UAE and Oman.
In a ceremony held in Oman, the apex body revealed the draws of the T20 World Cup 2021, as per which, defending champions West Indies are slotted in Group 1 alongside England, Australia, South Africa and the two qualifiers from Round 1.
On the other hand, arch-rivals India and Pakistan feature in Group 2 along with New Zealand, Afghanistan and the two qualifiers from Round 1.
It is pertinent to mention here that the first round of the tournament will see the qualifying event taking place, where four of the eight teams will ensure their progression to the main event. A total of 8 teams have already qualified for the main round while 4 more will join them from the qualifiers, making it a total of 12.
The eight teams vying for a spot in the main round are – Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, and Papua New Guinea.
For Round 1, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia are part of Group A whilst Oman, PNG and Scotland will face Bangladesh in Group B.
Notably, BCCI holds the hosting rights for the T20 World Cup 2021, due to be played in UAE and Oman from October 17 to November 14.
The marquee tournament was earlier supposed to take place in India but the BCCI decided to shift it outside the country, citing the safety of players and other stakeholders.
ICC Acting Chief Executive, Geoff Allardice, said: “We are delighted to announce the groups for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. There are some great match ups offered by the groups and it starts to bring the event to life for our fans as our first multi-team event since the onset of the global pandemic draws closer.
“Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, we selected the cutoff date as close as possible to the event to ensure we were able to include the maximum amount of cricket in the rankings which determine the groups. There is no doubt we will witness some highly competitive cricket when the event gets underway in just three months.”
The tournament schedule will be announced in due course.
