Mark 4 June 2026 on your calendar and book flights to Colombo; the opening match between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands starts at 19:00 local time at R. Premadasa Stadium, and the cheapest grandstand seats sold out in 72 hours last month. The tournament crams 20 teams into 55 games across 28 days, so use the ICC Travel Portal to lock in hotels near the three Sri Lankan venues now–rates jump 180 % once the Super-8 stage begins.
India still tops the ICC T20I rankings at 264 points, but Australia trimmed the gap to four after sweeping South Africa 3-0 in September. Keep an eye on England, who climbed to third with a net-run-rate of 2.34 in the past 12 months, and on Nepal, who at 11th place are the highest-ranked associate nation and drawn into Group D with Pakistan and New Zealand. The bottom line: any three-match losing streak between now and March can shove a contender outside the top-eight seedings and force them into the preliminary round.
Fixtures rotate through six cities separated by no more than a 90-minute flight, so day-tripping is realistic. From 8 June you can catch a double-header in Dhaka–Bangladesh v Zimbabwe at 14:00 followed by Afghanistan v Ireland under lights. If you want knockout tickets, aim for the second semi-final on 26 June in Kolkata; Eden Gardens allocates 15 % of its 66 000 capacity to general sale, the largest block of any knock-out venue, and prices start at ₹1 500.
2026 Tournament Calendar & Venue Grid
Book flights to Melbourne on 11 June if you want the opener: Australia v Qualifier A starts at 19:00 AEDT in Docklands Stadium, and the same venue hosts the double-header next afternoon at 15:30 and 19:30. Print the June 12-15 block in bold on your wall–those four straight days lock in 10 group-stage matches before teams fly north.
After Melbourne, every team relocates on 16 June. Adelaide Oval grabs the early slot (18:00) for South Africa v New Zealand; 35 minutes later the SCG lights up with India v Pakistan. Ticket bundles for that pair disappeared in 72 hours last cycle, so set three phone alarms for 09:00 AEST on 15 August when the final batch drops.
Brisbane Gabba and Perth Stadium split the Super-8 slate from 20-24 June. Day games start at 14:00 local to dodge the 21 °C dusk chill; night games at 18:30 exploit the 15 % swing boost that Western Australia sea breeze gifts to pace bowlers. Frequent-flyer sweet spot: QF 567 departs Perth at 23:55 and lands Brisbane 05:35, giving you a full rest day before the next fixture.
The semi-finals flip coasts: Sydney Cricket Ground on 27 June, 19:00 AEDT, then Eden Park, Auckland, on 29 June, 19:00 NZST. Trans-Tasman shuttles jump 35 % in price after 1 May, so lock Virgin Australia VA 161 right now–Sydney to Auckland, 12:15 departure, NZ$208 return if booked before 30 April.
Finals week compresses to one city: Lord-style long room hospitality at the MCG on 3 July costs AUD 395 and includes a rail pass for the 11-minute Jolimont hop. If that sells out, pivot to the Great Southern Stand Level-2 bays: sections Q33-Q36 still showed 1 200 seats at close yesterday, priced AUD 220 and shaded after 16:30.
Reserve the ICC Travel Portal filter "≤ 5 km radius" to pair hotels with venues–Melbourne Docklands, for instance, lists the 4-star Sebel at 1.2 km, AUD 178 per night with free tram zone. For the New Zealand leg, Auckland SkyCity Hotel sits 650 m from Eden Park; book the 28-30 June window before the 20 April price ladder kicks in and adds 18 %.
Group-by-Group Match Dates in Local Time
Convert every fixture to your local zone now: the ICC site lets you toggle to Alice Springs (ACST, UTC+9:30) so you’ll catch Group A India-Pakistan blockbuster at 19:00 local on 14 June in Melbourne, Australia opener against Sri Lanka at 15:30 on 16 June in Perth, and Bangladesh must-win clash with Ireland at 13:00 on 18 June in Hobart. Group B runs back-to-back night games–South Africa vs. West Indies at 20:00 on 15 June in Sydney, England vs. New Zealand at the same slot on 17 June in Adelaide–while Group C packs three consecutive double-headers into Brisbane (14:00 and 18:30) on 19-21 June featuring Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Netherlands and USA. Bookmark the https://likesport.biz/articles/two-men-three-boys-arrested-over-machete-incident-in-alice-springs.html page for quick reference if you’re planning to watch from the Red Centre.
Group D starts 13 June at 14:00 in Geelong with Scotland vs. PNG, then shifts to 18:30 night fixtures for Nepal-Oman on 20 June in Canberra and the decisive UAE-Kuwait encounter on 22 June in Melbourne. Knock-outs follow the same ACST-friendly rhythm: Super-8 games begin 24 June (14:00 and 19:00) across Adelaide Oval and SCG, semi-finals lock in 30 June at 19:00 at the MCG and 1 July at 19:30 at the Gabba, with the final at 19:00 on 5 July back at the MCG–set your reminders, share the converted calendar, and you’ll never chase a delayed stream again.
Reserve-Day Windows for Knockouts
Book your calendar for 24 June and 2 July 2026; the ICC has locked those two 24-hour windows exclusively for the men semi-finals and final at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Kensington Oval, so any wash-out pushes the match to the next afternoon with a 15:00 local start and no crowd-cap reduction.
Plan B: if rain still interferes, each knockout now allows a minimum 10-over shoot-out instead of the old five-over sprint, raising the par-score window for chasing teams by roughly 12–15 runs and giving wrist-spinners one extra over to exploit the gripping night surface.
Women knockouts mirror the men timetable, but their reserve slots sit 48 hours earlier–22 June and 30 June–because the preceding group games finish on separate weekends; broadcasters get a clean feed window and airlines gain a 36-hour gap to reposition charter fleets from Colombo to Sydney.
Supersub lists must be submitted 90 minutes before the first ball on the original day and remain frozen for the reserve day, so pack a batting-heavy bench if dew is forecast to roll in during the second innings under lights.
Ticket holders keep the same seat barcode; gates open at 11:00 for a 13:30 toss so families can still catch the last Sydney-Melbourne sleeper train, and any unclaimed refund pool rolls into the 2027 U-19 World Cup grassroots fund rather than back to the ICC treasury.
Stadium-by-Stadium Ticket Release Windows
Circle 12 August on every calendar you own; that when Eden Gardens opens its 2026 T20 World Cup ballot for the India-Pakistan blockbuster, releasing 68 000 seats in two waves–10:00 IST for ICC members and 14:00 IST for the public. Seats behind the fine-leg boundary (Block L-22) sell out in 11 minutes, so preload your payment details and aim for the high-roof Club House tiers instead; they stay available 35 % longer and still face the batting end.
Optus Stadium in Perth flips the script four hours later at 18:00 AWST on the same day. Because the BBL already proved locals will buy anything after work, the western grandstand (Bay 33-36) is held back for 48 hours to give travelling fans a realistic shot. Grab the A$99 Category-4 seats; they’re closer to the 30-yard circle than the A$180 Category-2 seats at the eastern flank and leave you A$81 for post-match fish-and-chips on the Swan River.
Tickets for Kensington Oval in Barbados drop only after the CPL final, traditionally 16 September, 15:00 AST. Pick the Joel Garner Stand over the Sir Gary Sobers Pavilion: the former sits square of the wicket, so you’ll photograph both batters without a backlit glare, and prices hold steady at US$65 because regional fans refuse to pay more than a CPL playoff ticket.
- Sydney Cricket Ground: 9 September, 09:00 AEST, 5 500 seats, women double-header opener. Ladies’ Pavilion sells last; Members’ Stand gone in 8 min.
- Warner Park, St Kitts: 21 September, 11:00 AST, 8 000 seats, no price tiers–every seat US$40 to keep Caribbean crowds mixed.
- Nassau County Stadium, New York: 3 October, 10:00 EDT, 34 000 modular seats, only mobile tickets, resale capped at 10 % above face value.
Heads-up for the semifinal at Mumbai Wankhede: the Maharashtra Cricket Association runs a staggered queue based on your six-character unique code, not first-come-first-served. Enter the waiting room at 08:55 IST, stay active, and accept the first seat offered; refusal bumps you to the back of a line that swells by 1 200 users every 30 seconds. North Stand upper tier has the best chance of upgrade because corporate boxes release unsold inventory 72 hours before match day.
Final release window at Lord lands on 7 November, 12:00 GMT. Only 2 500 tickets reach open market; the rest stay with MCC members. Non-members should stalk the Ticket Exchange precisely at 14:00 GMT when weekday-work commitments force season-ticket holders to offload. Expect to pay £185 for the Compton Stand lower, but you’ll witness the presentation ceremony from only 12 metres away. Enable push alerts; last-year resale volume peaked at 450 tickets in 17 minutes once England qualified.
Live Rankings & Seeding Impact
Check the ICC table every Monday at 09:00 GMT; that snapshot locks the seedings used for Super-8 group draws and decides whether your team avoids India or Australia until the semi-final. A single win in the group stage can vault a side from No. 7 to No. 4, flipping the knockout path and saving them from a possible MCG quarter-final against 55 000 raucous home fans.
| Rank Band | Seeding Range | Super-8 Group Letter | Knockout Path |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 1-4 | A or B | Face 2nd of C/D in QF |
| 5-8 | 5-8 | C or D | Face 1st of A/B in QF |
| 9-12 | 9-12 | First round only | Must win group to qualify |
Track net run-rate live on the ICC app; it acts as the tie-breaker when two sides sit level on points and can nudge a team up two seeding spots without another ball bowled. If Bangladesh edge ahead of Sri Lanka by 0.007 NRR in the final group game they jump from 9th to 8th, earning a pre-seeded Super-8 slot instead of a luck-of-the-draw first-round knockout, effectively gifting them an extra rest day and a softer opponent in Barbados on 18 June.
Top-8 Cut-Off Date for Automatic Qualification
Circle 30 June 2025 on your calendar; that 23:59 BST deadline locks the ICC Men T20I Rankings and decides which eight sides go straight into the 2026 World Cup.
The table refreshes after every bilateral series, so a team that sits seventh in mid-May can tumble to ninth by early July if it loses a three-match set 0-3 and the chasing pack wins. Plan your FTP window now: schedule at least six games between 1 April and 20 June to control destiny instead of watching spreadsheets on deadline night.
Points calculations follow the familiar 2 for a win, 1 for a no-result, 0 for a defeat, then adjust by opponent strength and match weight. A home victory over the top-ranked side nets 22 points; the same win against a side ranked outside the top 12 delivers only 8. Managers track the projected delta on the ICC FTP app; if swapping a two-game visit from 15th-ranked opponents for a single game against the leaders adds 14 points, the travel bill pays for itself.
Net-run-rate decides tied totals, so every ball matters. In 2023 the West Indies edged Sri Lanka by 0.024 rankings decimal and booked a direct berth; Sri Lanka entered the regional qualifier, lost two matches, and missed the tournament. Build death-over plans for 12-plus-run margins now.
Reserve the 25-30 June window for contingencies. Rain wipes out the last two games of a series? Re-stage them on those spare days instead of accepting a 1-1 split that dumps you from eighth to tenth. Boards that secured standby venues in 2022 gained an average 6.3 ranking points in the final fortnight.
Track the chasing pack weekly: sides ranked 9-12 receive double points for wins until 31 March 2025, so a whitewash vaults them 4-5 places. If you hover at seventh, rest your first-choice attack against weaker July 2024 opponents and keep them fresh for the September marquee series when the multiplier drops back to 1×.
Update your fixtures list on the ICC portal within 24 hours of signing any MoU; delays strip 10 % of points gained in that series. Zimbabwe lost 4.1 points in 2024 and slipped to ninth, proving admins can undo months of on-field work in a single clerical oversight.
After 30 June the only route to the 2026 event is through regional qualifiers starting October 2025. Those tournaments send one team apiece from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas plus two from the East Asia-Pacific logjam, so treat mid-year rankings like a group-stage exit door you simply refuse to walk through.
How Net Run-Rate Could Shuffle Final Group Placements
Track every over like a hawk: if your side chases 160 in 16.3 instead of 20, you bank +0.425 NRR; concede the same total in 19.4 and you slip to –0.050. Those micro-margins decide who flies to the knock-outs when two teams finish on four points each, a scenario that hit Pakistan in 2022 and South Africa in 2021.
- Schedule the power-hitters for overs 7-12; six extra boundaries here flips roughly 0.12 NRR.
- Pick one frontline bowler who concedes under 6.5 per over; his four overs save ~0.08 NRR per match.
- If rain trims the chase, insist on finishing inside 60 % of revised overs; partial-par calculations still count balls faced, so quicker knocks keep the rate healthy.
- Win big early: victories by 60-plus runs in the first two games give room to experiment later without bleeding rate.
Group 2 in 2026 illustrates the stakes: India, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe share the same venue pair–Dallas and Bridgetown–so conditions stay uniform and NRR becomes the pure tie-breaker. Expect at least two sides to finish 3-2; the one that wins its tightest game with ten balls to spare, rather than five, will grab the semi-final berth on decimal fractions you can’t spot without a calculator.
Q&A:
Which cities will host the first-round matches, and do any of them have a history of rain delays at this time of year?
The opening round is split between three venues: Perth, Brisbane and Hobart. Perth Optus Stadium rarely loses overs in November because rain is unusual and the drop-in pitch drains fast. Brisbane Gabba can have afternoon storms, but they’re usually short and the ground staff get play back on within 30–40 minutes. Hobart is the one to watch Bellerive Oval sits on the Derwent and spring fronts can hang around; three of the last five BBL games there in November lost overs. If you’re booking tickets, grab afternoon seats in Perth and Brisbane, but consider a flexible flight out of Hobert if a reserve day is triggered.
How many teams from each group are guaranteed to reach the Super 8, and what happens if net run-rate is tied?
Two from each group advance. If net run-rate is identical, the tie-breaker order is: head-to-head result, then fewest balls faced to score the same runs, then higher seed at the draw. One curiosity: if three teams finish level on points and all beat each other in a circle, the organisers flip a coin rather than go to a bowl-out. It never happened, but the clause is there.
Where can I see the full fixture list in my own time zone without doing mental maths every time?
The ICC site lets you pick your zone, but the easiest hack is to subscribe to the calendar link they publish Google, Outlook and Apple all auto-convert to your phone setting. Bookmark the link now; once the qualifier teams are confirmed the file updates itself and your calendar refreshes overnight.
Is there any chance the final could be moved away from Melbourne if India don’t make it, or is the venue locked in regardless?
The contract locks the MCG for the final, full house or not. CA makes its money from the ground deal with the state government 70 000 seats already sold in corporate packages before a ball is bowled. Even if both semi-finals are washed out, the trophy match stays on 22 November at the ‘G. Only a natural disaster or force-majeure clause could shift it, and that would mean Sydney or Adelaide, not overseas.
Which cities and grounds will host the Super 8 stage in the 2026 T20 World Cup, and how were they chosen?
The Super 8 will be split between two USA venues Grand Prairie in Dallas and Nassau County new modular stadium in New York plus one Caribbean ground, Kensington Oval in Barbados. The shortlist was driven by broadcast-time zone needs for the Asian market, minimum 25 000-seat capacity, and reliable June weather patterns. Dallas and New York also ticked the "untapped American fan base" box that the ICC and Cricket West Indies pitched to sponsors, while Barbados already had proven flood-lighting and broadcast fibre infrastructure from the 2010 World T20.
Reviews
Julian
Same circus, new tent. Rankings? Glorified bingo cards today "top" side folds to a bunch of part-timers tomorrow. Schedule drops, calendars fill, wallets empty; airlines and hotels raise rates faster than any six-hitter. Players limp in with taped joints and franchise fatigue, pretending national pride still pays the rehab bills. Broadcasters flog another wave of overpriced merch, kids trade lunch money for pixelated player cards that vanish when servers go cold. Six weeks of prime-time rain delays, dew-lotteries, and super-over coin flips decide who gets bragging rights nobody will remember once the IPL auction list leaks. By semifinals half the XI will be nursing niggles, the other half nursing brand deals. Trophy gets lifted, fireworks fade, and the caravan rolls on, leaving only empty stadium seats and another entry in the record books nobody asked for.
Silas
So the ICC just gift-wraps India a night semi in Mumbai again anyone else smell the fix, or are we still pretending rankings aren’t bought when the board coffers swell every time the men in blue play last?
Felix
Guys, if you had one free plane ticket to follow your team through the whole Super-8 leg, which city would you pick as your base camp Delhi, Sydney, or Kingston and what lucky charm are you packing to keep the streak alive?
Dorian
I came here to memorise the fixtures like a good little cricket zealot, only to realise I’ve already double-booked my own wedding for the India-Pakistan Super-8 clash. My fiancée thinks the aisle is sacred; I think the 22-yard strip is holier. Rankings? I treat them like my cholesterol numbers peek once, panic, then bury under a mountain of fried snacks and denial. My liver protesting louder than an Associate nation at the seeding meeting, but do I listen? Nope. I’ll still yell "Why is he still opening?" at 3 a.m., as if my sofa-coaching diploma carries ICC accreditation. The only trophy I’ll lift this June is the TV remote, and even that cracked from last year semifinal tantrum.
BlazeForge
Your mom could’ve typed a sharper schedule on a cracked Nokia while choking on my yorker. Rankings? More like a limp dick waving contest everybody knows the only cup you clowns will lift is the one holding your tears when the real teams stomp you into the cheap seats.
BellaVibe
My flat smells of linseed oil and cardamom; I’ve propped phone between paint jars to watch the women qualifiers. Ranking shifts feel like tides quiet, stubborn. I’ll brew extra tea for the 2 a.m. India-Pakistan clash and stitch their flags on my old denim jacket.
Emily Johnson
ICC T20 2026 schedule drops and my nail tech already knows I’ll need gel refill during India-Pakistan because that when my ex texts "miss u." Rankings? Please. Australia glued to No.1 like last season lashes looks plush, still falling off. West Indies cling to fifth the way I cling to 2-for-1 happy hour: stubborn, tipsy, doomed. Fixtures list is longer than my situationship receipts; I’ll cheer, ghost, repeat.