Ahmedabad: The world’s largest cricket ground, Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, has been chosen to host the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, with the full schedule expected to be announced formally by the International Cricket Council (ICC) soon.

According to reports, the ICC has shortlisted Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai as India’s host cities for the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup, which will also be co-hosted by Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, Colombo and Kandy have been shortlisted as the likely venues.

The tournament is tentatively scheduled to begin in February and will conclude with the final at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on March 8. However, the official fixtures are yet to be announced. According to a new agency report, the ICC is expected to release the full schedule next week, with just around three months remaining before the tournament begins.

Meanwhile, Pakistan will play all their matches in Sri Lanka under the existing BCCI-PCB agreement, which ensures that India and Pakistan face each other at neutral venues in multi-nation tournaments hosted by the other country. This means that if Pakistan reaches the final, that match will also be held in Sri Lanka.

The 2026 T20 World Cup will follow the same format as the previous edition: 20 teams divided into four groups of five, with each team playing the others once. The top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Eight stage, split into two groups of four. The leading two teams from each Super Eight group will qualify for the semi-finals, with the winners progressing to the final.

Apart from host nations India and Sri Lanka, automatic qualification was granted to the top seven teams from the 2024 T20 World Cup—Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, USA, and West Indies. The three teams qualifying through T20I rankings are New Zealand, Pakistan, and Ireland.

Canada secured the Americas Qualifier spot, while Italy (making their T20 World Cup debut) and the Netherlands qualified from the five-team European tournament. Namibia and Zimbabwe earned two spots from the eight-team Africa qualifier, and Nepal, Oman, and UAE advanced from the Asia-EAP round.

India enters the tournament as defending champions, having defeated South Africa in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados. DeshGujarat