Men's T20 World Cup 2024 to have reserve days for semifinals, final

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Friday that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 would have reserve days scheduled for the semifinals and final. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 will be jointly hosted by the West Indies and the USA from June 1 to 29.

The decision to this effect was taken during the ICC’s annual Board meetings in Dubai. The ICC has introduced reserve days for the final of the ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 in India after it faced a lot of criticism over the lack of such a rule in the previous editions.

During the meeting, the ICC also approved the playing conditions for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and announced the qualification process for the 2026 edition, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, the ICC has stipulated that a minimum of five overs will need to be bowled to the team batting second to constitute a game in the group stages and the Super Eight stage, the ICC informed in a release after the annual board meeting.

However, for the knockout matches, a minimum of 10 overs need to be bowled in the second innings to constitute a match.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 qualification process was also approved on Friday. The 20-team tournament will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka and will have a total of 12 automatic qualifiers.

The top eight teams in the 2024 edition will join India and Sri Lanka as automatic qualifiers, with the remaining spots (between two and four, depending on host finishing positions) will be taken up by the next best-ranked sides in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings table as of June 30, 2024.

The remaining eight positions will be filled through the Regional Qualifiers.