India won the T20 World Cup 2024 hosted by the West Indies and the USA after a gap of 17 years having won the inaugural edition back in 2007. The men in blue defeated a spirited South African side by seven runs in the final played at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. This was one of the best T20 World Cups by distance in terms of competition with 20 teams taking part and associate teams shocking full member nations.
For the same reason, there is already excitement around the next T20 World Cup and when it will be played. For the unversed, the next mega event in the shortest format is set to be played two years later in 2026 and once again, the tournament will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. ICC has jotted down the February-March window for the World Cup to take place in the two countries in 2026.
Notably, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja are already retired from the format and won’t be available to feature in a World Cup being played at home. As far as the teams qualified are concerned, India and Sri Lanka, being the hosts, have already made it while all the other teams who qualified for Super 8 round of T20 World Cup 2024 automatically sealed their place for the mega event two years later.
Here are the details related to T20 World Cup 2026:
How have Sri Lanka qualified despite not making it to Super 8 round of T20 World Cup 2024?
Sri Lanka are one of the hosts with India for T20 World Cup 2026 and they are automatically qualified for the tournament.
Which are the other teams that are qualified and how did they do it?
Apart from India and Sri Lanka, other teams who have qualified are – Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, USA and the West Indies.
Pakistan, New Zealand and Ireland have also qualified based on the ICC rankings on June 30, 2024.
Remaining eight teams will be decided by regional qualifiers. Africa, Asia and Europe have two qualification spots each and one spot each is for Americas and East-Asia Pacific regions.
