• USA to co-host the tournament along with West Indies
• India to take on arch rivals Pakistan on June 9 in New York

After the Indian Premier League (IPL) extravaganza, it’s now time for yet another T20 cricket carnival as the cricketing nations congregate at the United States of America (USA) and West Indies to take part in the 9th edition of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup tournament starting from June 2 to June 29.

This will be the first time that a major ICC cricket tournament is being hosted in the USA or in any other country in the Americas outside the West Indies. England are the defending champions, having defeated Pakistan in the final of the previous edition held during 2022-23. The T20 World Cup features a total of 20 teams. England, Pakistan, New Zealand, India, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka earned their spots by placing in the top eight of the previous T20 World Cup in 2022, with Afghanistan and Sri Lanka qualifying as the next two highest-ranked teams in the T20I rankings. Ireland and Scotland qualified from the European qualifying round, while Papua New Guinea advanced from the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier and Oman and Nepal secured two berths from the Asian Qualifier. Namibia joined Uganda in passing through the African Qualifier.

The 20 qualifying teams have been divided into four groups of five teams; the top two teams in each group will advance to the Super 8 round. In this stage, the qualifying teams will be split into two groups of four; the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knock-out stage, which will consist of two semi-finals and a final.

India’s group stage matches include a face-off against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 9 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York starting at 8 pm (IST). The last time the two teams faced off in the T20 World Cup was in October 2022 inside a packed Melbourne Cricket Stadium.

Catch live action on Star Sports Network and Disney + Hotstar.