Australia will host the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 the pinnacle global event for T20 cricket, the game’s fastest growing format. Australia was originally scheduled to host the event in 2020, before it was postponed due to COVID-19 and re-scheduled for 16 October – 13 November 2022.
It’s the first time Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup after a record-breaking women’s event, which was held in February – March 2020. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will feature 16 international teams playing 45 matches around Australia.
Current T20 World Cup in Oman and the UAE will play a role in determining who joins Afghanistan, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and hosts Australia, who have already qualified for the 2022 showpiece.
These eight teams gained direct entry to the Super 12 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 by virtue of being inside the top eight on the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20 International Rankings at the cut-off prior to the postponed 2020 event. All teams who reach the Super 12 stage of the current T20 World Cup in Oman and the UAE will earn automatic qualification to the event in Australia next year. So along with the above teams Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Scotland and Namibia qualified to the tournament.
The current event qualification pathway is as follows:
- The 12 teams that play in the Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will automatically qualify for Australia 2022.
- From the 12 automatic qualifiers, the winner and runner up of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 plus the next six highest ranked teams (as of November 15, 2021) will go straight through to the Super 12 stage of Australia 2022.
- The remaining four teams from the Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will play in the First Round of Australia 2022.
Based on latest rankings (20th Oct), Sri Lanka remain in the 10th position and highly unlikely to make to the top six at the cut off date 15th November 2021. So if Sri Lanka, desires to go straight to Super 12s without playing round 1 in 2022 World Cup, Sri Lanka has to be among the finalists of T20 World Cup 2021.