Cricket’s T20 World Cup starts Saturday under a bitter‑sour build-up marred by political turmoil, Bangladesh flung out and Pakistan refusing to play arch-rivals and co-hosts India.
Ultimately, Pakistan will play the first ball of the tournament with a very disorderly lead-in when they take on Netherlands in Colombo in the opener.
Holders and pre-tournament favourites India will open the tournament in the night match on day one against the United States in Mumbai with a nation of more than a billion cricket followers looking to them for glory.
A man walks past a billboard of the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in Colombo on February 5.
Under Suryakumar Yadav, India are clear tournament favourites and will be expected to canter into the Super Eight from Group A.
Yadav, who captained the side to an Asia Cup victory last year, has grown in stature as leader and new stars have emerged for the world’s number-one ranked T20 side. The batters and bowlers lists are spearheaded by opener Abhishek Sharma and mystery spin bowler Varun Chakravarthy respectively while Ishan Kishan is also in red-hot form.
With a murderous batting line-up and a devastating attack spearheaded by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, India delivered an ominous warning in defeating New Zealand at home in their most recent series.
But they will not take the United States lightly, as they aim to scalp another cricketing giant having stunned Pakistan to reach the Super Eights in 2024.
Former champions Australia and England are also considered as strong title contenders who can spoil the party for defending champions India, looking at a record second seccessive triumph.
Australia, the defending champions after winning the 2021 tournament, have been plagued by the loss of paceman Pat Cummins who was a late withdrawal with a lower back stress fracture.
Paceman Josh Hazlewood will not play in the early rounds as he continues his recovery from hamstring and Achilles injuries.
Based around their captain Mitchell Marsh, the Australians should, however, make it through into the second phase from Group B despite facing a very winnable match against Ireland- who they first play at Sinhalese SC on Wednesday – as well as co-hosts.Sri Lanka-Oman and Zimbabwe.
Harry Brook’s England, who have gone to the T20 World Cup on a wave of confidence after a 3-0 series win in Sri Lanka this week, are expected to be pushed through from Group C that includes two-time winners West Indies as well as debutants Italy and Nepal and Scotland.
Brook, heavily in the spotlight after having to apologise for an altercation with a night club bouncer in New Zealand last year, is captaining at a global tournament for the first time since replacing Jos Buttler as white ball captain.
England, which began play with a match against Nepal on Sunday in Mumbai, has won the tournament twice, in 2010 and 2022.
Scotland, who replaced Bangladesh at the last minute will take guard on day one when they play West Indies in Kolkata.
Footballing heavyweight Italy will feature at a cricket World Cup for the first time, against the Scots in Kolkata on Monday.
South Africa, 2024 runners-up, have yet to win a white ball World Cup but are boosted by having won last year’s inaugural World Test Championship.
They will pose a threat but they must first come through a Group D that will not make their task easy against unpredictable sides New Zealand and Afghanistan.
They open against Canada on Monday in Ahmedabad, with the UAE the other side in that group.
The top two sides from each of the four groups of five teams will qualify for the Super Eights, where the top four will play knockout semifinals.
Politics, pullouts
Relief will be the order of the day at the weekend when finally action gets under way after weeks of political bickering which has hogged preparations to the 10th staging of the showpiece tournament.
Bangladesh declined to play in India due to security concerns between both countries as they turned sour, and were ejected by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from England Group C.
The ICC is led by Jay Shah, the powerful Indian home minister Amit Shah’s son and a former secretary of the Indian cricket board.
Pakistan, who supported Bangladesh’s plea to switch their matches out of the country onto Sri Lanka, have been given the green light by Islamabad for playing but they were then instructed not to play a red-hot contest against arch-rivals India on February 15.
The ICC’s response, according to reports in the media, has been that they have yet to receive formal notice of the PCB’s boycott decision; which just about keeps a door open in case there is a last-minute deal to be done just so that – despite it all – the game does go ahead.
Should India receive a walkover, Pakistan will lose two points and their net run rate will take a massive blow.
Should any of the other three Group A matches for one or both sides be washed out then it could well end Pakistan’s chances of making it through.
A withdrawal by Pakistan will mean millions of dollars in lost revenues for broadcasters and a sore disappointment to fans on both sides.
The crisis erupted last month when India’s cricket board directed the Kolkata Knight Riders to leave out Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, aggravating political tensions between the neighbouring nations.
The final will be played in Ahmedabad or Colombo on March 8, should Pakistan progress that far.