Virat Kohli-led India have been drawn together along with arch-rivals Pakistan as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the groups for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to be hosted by the BCCI in Oman and the United Arab Emirates from 17 October to 14 November.
Group 2 will comprise former champions India and Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and the other two qualifiers from Round 1. Eight teams will contest the first round including automatic qualifiers Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with the remaining six who booked their spot through the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019. Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia join Sri Lanka in Group A, whilst Oman, PNG and Scotland will face Bangladesh in Group B.
ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice: “We are delighted to announce the groups for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. There are some great matchups 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.”
“With the announcement of groupings, our countdown for the ICC T20 World Cup kickstarts. There is nothing that separates the two groups as both are packed with sides that are highly competitive in the shortest format of the game,” BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said.
While the tournament is being held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, BCCI are still the official hosts as it was originally set to be played in India.
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