The much-awaited draws for the T20 World Cup were announced on Friday. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and board secretary Jay Shah were present in the ceremony in which the ICC announced that arch-rivals India and Pakistan, who one the first two editions of the showpiece event, have been placed in the same group.
Notably, in the wake of Coronavirus situation in India, T20 World Cup was shifted to UAE and Oman. The tournament will be held across four venues - Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Oman, from October 17 to November 14.
There are two groups in Super 12, in which six teams have been kept. Group-2 comprise India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and other two qualifiers from Round 1. Group-1 comprise England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies.
For Round 1, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia are in Group A, while Bangladesh, Scotland, Papuna New Guinea and Oman are in Group B.
The winner of Group A and runner-up of Group B will qualify for Group 1 in Super 12, while winner of Group B and runner-up of Group A will be part of Group 2.
T20 World Cup Groups
Group 1 - ENG, AUS, SA, WI, Winner Group A, Runner-up Group B
Group 2 - IND, PAK, NZ, AFG, Runner-up Group A, Winner 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.”