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On June 2 2021, the ICC announced their expansion in their global events. Champions Trophy returned, the 14-team format was back for the 50-over World Cup and the T20 World Cup expanded further to 20 teams.ย
The ICC T20 World Cup 2024 is where 20 teams format will begin. Twelve teams have already qualified for the competition while the rest eight will be determined through the regional qualifiers.
There will be 4 groups of five teams each and the top two from each group will go to the Super Eight. The Super Eight is similar to the first four editions of the T20 World Cup tournament which is split into two groups of four teams. The top two from each group will then play the knockouts.
To read further on the ICC events and their expansion, read this:
ICC Expands International Cricket Tournaments
T20 World Cup 2024: How will the new format look?
As stated, 20 teams will take place in the event. This will be the largest pool of teams playing in an ICC tournament. It will be divided into four groups of five teams each. For better understanding, we look at the tweet of the High Commissioner of Aotearoa New Zealand, Michael Appleton:
He states an example of the group seedings by taking the current rankings and guess of the qualifiers. We will use this tweet as an example to further explain the process of the tournament.
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| India | England | Pakistan | South Africa |
| Sri Lanka | West Indies | Australia | New Zealand |
| Bangladesh | Afghanistan | Zimbabwe | Ireland |
| Nepal | Scotland | Namibia | UAE |
| Netherlands | PNG | Canada | USA |
A total of 40 matches will be played (10 matches per group). The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Eight. This round is again divided. It will be divided into two groups which will be known as โGroup Eโ and โGroup F.โ
Super Eight Explainer
The Super Eight round of qualifying does not depend on which team ends as group winners and group runners but rather it follows an old format; A1-B2-C1-D2 and A2-B1-C2-D1. Meaning that the teams will be given the group of E or F accordingly regardless of where they end in the initial group.
For example; Pakistan are given the seed of โC1โ due to the rankings. Even if they end as runners of Group C, they will still be given a C1 seed due to their higher rank prior to the tournament. For that, they will be placed in Group E in the next round. Likewise, if Pakistan fails to qualify for the next round, the team that qualifies along with Australia will be given that seed.
Now to understand the next round and its progression, we will take an example of the above table and set the teams accordingly;
| Group E | Seed | Group F | Seed |
| India | A1 | Sri Lanka | A2 |
| West Indies | B2 | England | B1 |
| Pakistan | C1 | Australia | C2 |
| New Zealand | D2 | South Africa | D1 |
The round will see a total of 12 matches (6 per group). The progress of this round is very simple; the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage.
This 20-team format will carry on in 2026, 2028 and 2030 Menโs T20 World Cup editions with teams now competing even further. There are a lot of exciting competitions ahead and this format of the T20 World Cup will be worth watching.
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