The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

tournament that took place from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The tournament was hosted by

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

and

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

. It was scheduled to be hosted by Australia in 2020 but later postponed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The tournament was scheduled to be held in Australia from 18 October to 15 November 2020. Due to the

, the tournament was postponed to 2021, and relocated to India due to Australian entry restrictions; Australia would be awarded the 2022 tournament instead. Due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic situation in India, the tournament was re-located to sites in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, with the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

(BCCI) remaining the official hosts. The

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

were the defending champions, but were eventually eliminated in the Super 12 stage.

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

became the first team to reach the final, after they beat

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

by five wickets in the semi-finals. It was the first time that

had qualified for a T20 World Cup final. They were joined in the final by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, who beat

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

by five wickets in the second semi-final. It was the second time that Australia had qualified for the final of the T20 World Cup, after reaching the final of the 2010 tournament. In the final,

beat

by eight wickets to win their first T20 World Cup. Mitchell Marsh was named the Player of the Match, with David Warner being named the Player of the Tournament.

Background

Australia were first awarded the tournament in February 2015, with New Zealand expected to co-host. It would have been the first time that Australia would host the men's World Twenty20. The tournament was provisionally scheduled to be held from 18 October to 15 November 2020. Prior to the 2018 Women's World Twenty20 final, the ICC announced that the men's and women's World Twenty20 would be rebranded as the "T20 World Cup" beginning in 2020, as part of a goal to heighten its profile alongside the ICC's world championships for other formats (the

Cricket World Cup The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial world cup for cricket in One Day International (ODI) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and consid ...

for ODI, and ICC World Test Championship). In April 2020, the ICC confirmed that despite the

, the tournament was still planned to go ahead as scheduled. However, the following month a senior ICC official said that it would be "too big a risk" to host the tournament in 2020, The ICC also stated that reports of postponing the tournament were inaccurate, with multiple contingency plans being looked at. A decision on the tournament was originally deferred until the ICC's meeting on 10 June 2020, with a further announcement scheduled to be made in July 2020. In June 2020, Earl Eddings, the chairman of

Cricket Australia Cricket Australia (CA) is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Cricket'. It is incorporated as an Australian Public Company ...

, said that it was "unlikely" and "unrealistic" that the tournament would take place in Australia as scheduled. Eddings also suggested that Australia could host the event in October 2021, and India stage the tournament a year later in 2022. The ICC also considered moving the tournament to be played around the next

Women's Cricket World Cup The Women's Cricket World Cup is the quadrennial international championship of Women's One Day International Cricket tournament. Matches are played as One Day Internationals over 50 overs per team. There is also another championship for Tw ...

, which was originally scheduled to take place in New Zealand for February 2021. A month before the official postponement, Australian federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham announced that the Australian government expected that the country's borders would be closed to international travel until 2021. The ICC also confirmed that either Australia or India, the hosts for the tournaments originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and 2021 respectively, would host this tournament. In August 2020, the ICC confirmed that India are expected to host the 2021 tournament, with Australia expected to the

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

tournament. In the same month, the ICC confirmed that Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates were being considered as back-up venues for the tournament. In April 2021, the ICC's CEO Geoff Allardice confirmed that back-up plans were still in place if India were unable to host the tournament due to the pandemic. Later the same month, Dhiraj Malhotra of the

(BCCI) confirmed that the UAE would be used as a contingency, if the pandemic in India continued to get worse. The BCCI were also in talks with Oman as a potential co-host of the tournament. On 1 June 2021, the ICC gave the BCCI the deadline of 28 June 2021 to make its decision on where the tournament would be played. Regardless of the actual location of the tournament, the ICC also confirmed that the BCCI would remain as the hosts of the competition. Later, the ICC confirmed that the tournament had been moved to the UAE and Oman. It was the first time for both the UAE and Oman to be hosting a global ICC event, and also the first occasion that a cricket World Cup was held entirely outside of the Test-playing nations. Less than two weeks before the start of the tournament, Oman was impacted by Cyclone Shaheen which passed only a few miles north of the tournament venue in Al-Amerat. Pankaj Khimji, chairman of Oman Cricket, stated that "we were so close to being virtually wiped out ..had this had happened over here in this area, I'd have said goodbye to the World Cup".

Teams and qualification

As of 31 December 2018, the top nine ranked ICC Full Members, alongside hosts India, qualified directly for the 2021 tournament. Of those ten teams, the top eight ranked sides qualified for the Super 12s stage of the tournament.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

did not qualify for the Super 12s, instead being placed in the group stage of the competition. They were joined by the six teams who had qualified for the tournament via the 2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier. Of the teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings, the

and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

could only qualify through regional competitions. The top four teams from the group stage advanced to the Super 12s.

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

were the first team to secure their position via the Qualifier, after they won Group A of the tournament, finishing above the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on net run rate. It was the first time that Papua New Guinea had qualified for a World Cup in any format.

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

became the second team to qualify via this route after they won Group B, also on net run rate. In the first match in the playoffs, the Netherlands qualified for the T20 World Cup when they beat the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets, after the UAE only scored 80 runs in their innings. The second qualifier match saw Namibia advance to their first T20 World Cup after beating Oman by 54 runs. Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the T20 World Cup. Oman became the final team to qualify for the T20 World Cup, when they beat Hong Kong by 12 runs in the last playoff match. In August 2021, concerns and doubts were raised over the participation of Afghanistan cricket team in the tournament ever since Afghanistan was brought under the control of the Taliban. Afghanistan's team media manager Hikmat Hassan confirmed that Afghanistan would play in the T20 World Cup, despite the political turmoil in the country. On 6 October 2021, the Afghanistan team left Kabul, travelling to

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

, Qatar, for a training camp before the start of the tournament.

Match officials

On 7 October 2021, the ICC named the match referees and the on-field umpires for the tournament. For the Super 12 match between India and New Zealand, umpire Michael Gough was replaced by Marais Erasmus after Gough was suspended for six days for breaching the tournament's bio-secure bubble. On 3 November 2021, the ICC confirmed that Gough would not officiate in any further matches in the tournament. On 9 November 2021, the match officials were confirmed for the semi-final matches, with the officials for the final being confirmed on 12 November 2021. Match referees * David Boon * Jeff Crowe * Ranjan Madugalle * Javagal Srinath Umpires *

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

* Aleem Dar * Kumar Dharmasena * Marais Erasmus * Chris Gaffaney * Michael Gough * Adrian Holdstock * Richard Illingworth *

Richard Kettleborough Richard Allan Kettleborough (born 15 March 1973) is an English international cricket umpire, and former first-class cricketer who appeared in 33 first-class matches for Yorkshire and Middlesex. He was a left-handed top order batsman and occasi ...

* Nitin Menon * Ahsan Raza * Paul Reiffel * Langton Rusere * Rod Tucker * Joel Wilson * Paul Wilson

Squads

Each team selected a squad of 15 players before 10 October 2021. Each team was also able to select up to seven additional players, if needed, with regards to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. On 10 August 2021, New Zealand were the first team to announce their squad for the tournament. All the teams announced their preliminary squads by 12 September 2021.

Schedule and broadcasting

With a total of 45 matches, the T20 World Cup was composed of two rounds. Round 1 had twelve matches played between eight teams (

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

and

), with the top four teams progressing to the Super 12s. The Super 12s consisted of 30 matches between the four teams from Round 1 and the top eight ranked T20I teams. Originally, if Sri Lanka or Bangladesh qualified from their first round groups, they would have retained their respective seedings of A1 or B1 for the Super 12s. However, the ICC later changed this rule, after Scotland topped Group B and progressed as B1. Those teams were then split into two groups of six each. This was then followed by the two semi-finals and then the final. On 16 July 2021, the ICC confirmed the groups for the tournament, which were decided on the rankings of the teams as of 20 March 2021. On 17 August 2021, the ICC confirmed the final fixtures for the tournament including the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and super 12 matches. The ICC named all of the official broadcasters for the tournament on its website, including details on television coverage, digital content for in-match clips and highlights, and audio listings. The official anthem of the tournament was released on 14 October 2021, by

Sony Music India Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian music record label operated by Sony and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company began operations in 1997 and was the first record company in India to be fully foreign-owned, with ...

Venues

On 17 April 2021, the BCCI proposed the name of the cities which are scheduled to be hosting the matches.

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, Dharamshala,

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, and

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

were the venues along with

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

, hosting the final of the event. On 18 April 2021, it was announced that Pakistan would play two of their group matches in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, while

and

would host the semi-finals. On 28 June 2021, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed that due to the COVID-19 situation in the country the board has officially communicated to the ICC about their decision to move the event from India to the UAE. Some of the preliminary round matches of the event were also set to be held in Oman. On 29 June 2021, the ICC confirmed that the T20 World Cup would be played in the UAE and Oman. The tournament took place in four venues: the

Dubai International Cricket Stadium The Dubai International Stadium, aka the Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is mainly used for cricket and is one of the three main cricket stadiums in the country, the other two being ...

, the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground. During July 2021, the Tolerance Oval in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

was awaiting accreditation by the ICC to also be used as one of the venues for the tournament.

Prize money

On 10 October 2021, the ICC announced the prize money for the tournament.

Warm-up matches

The following warm-up matches for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup were played between 12 and 20 October between all participants. The first set of matches featured the teams from the groups in the first round of the main tournament, before the teams in the Super 12 phase played their warm-up matches. These matches did not have either

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) status or T20 status as teams were allowed to field all 15 members of their squad.

First round warm-ups

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Super 12 warm-ups

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

First round

Group A

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Super 12

Group 1

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group 2

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

----

Final

Statistics

The leading run-scorer in the tournament was

Babar Azam Mohammad Babar Azam (Urdu, ; ; born 15 October 1994) is a Pakistani international cricketer and a former Captain (cricket), captain of the Pakistan national cricket team , national team in all three formats of the game. A right-handed top-orde ...

, with 303. The leading wicket-taker was Wanindu Hasaranga, who took 16 dismissals, the most by a bowler in a single edition of the T20 World Cup. *Source: Cricinfo *Source: Cricinfo

Team of the tournament

On 14 November 2021, the ICC announced its team of the tournament, with David Warner being named as player of the tournament and Babar Azam as the captain of the team.

References

External links

Series home
at ESPN Cricinfo {{DEFAULTSORT:ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 2021 in cricket 2021 in Emirati cricket 2021 in Omani sport * International cricket competitions in 2021–22 ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 International cricket competitions in the United Arab Emirates International cricket competitions in Oman ICC Men's T20 World Cup ICC Men's T20 World Cup