T20 World Cup: How the 20 teams qualified for the ninth edition of ICC’s flagship T20 event

The ninth edition of the T20 World Cup is set to begin in a little over 24 hours time, with co-hosts USA taking on Canada in the tournament opener at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas on Saturday, 1 June.

The upcoming tournament is set to be a historic one. Not only is it the first major global tournament taking place on American soil, it will also be the biggest cricketing event ever with 20 teams taking part.

Read | Complete squads of all teams in 2024 T20 World Cup

The 2007 edition of the ODI World Cup and the last four editions of the T20 World Cup had 16 teams each, and the 2024 T20 World Cup takes things to another level with the addition of four more teams.

Additionally, Uganda will be making its debut in a global cricketing event in the upcoming T20 World Cup, highlighting the growth of the ‘Gentleman’s Game’ at a global level.

Read | Full schedule of 2024 T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA

Before the tournament gets underway, we take a quick look at how the 20 teams qualified for the tournament:

Qualified as hosts

West Indies and USA automatically qualified for the tournament as co-hosts. The Americans, whose only appearance in an ICC event involving Full Members was in the 2004 Champions Trophy, will be making their debut in the T20 World Cup.

Two-time champions West Indies, on the other hand, will be hoping to make amends after finishing at the bottom of their group comprising Zimbabwe, Ireland and Scotland in the 2022 edition in Australia, failing to reach the Super 12s in the process.

Top-eight teams in 2022 edition

Eight teams qualified for the 2024 edition on the basis of their final position at the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup. That includes champions England and runners-up Pakistan, the former winning the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by five wickets to win the tournament for the second time. Finishing among the top four were India and New Zealand, who lost to England and Pakistan respectively in the semi-finals.

Additionally, the teams that finished third and fourth in their respective groups in the Super 12s qualified for the 2024 edition. Australia and Sri Lanka made the cut in Group 1, as did South Africa and Netherlands in Group 2.

On the basis of team rankings

Afghanistan and Bangladesh are the only remaining teams to have confirmed their place in the tournament without having to take the qualifier route.

Bangladesh and Afghanistan had finished fifth and sixth respectively in their respective groups in the last T20 World Cup, missing out on automatic qualification as a result, but have made the cut as the next two highest-ranked teams on the ICC T20I rankings.

T20 World Cup Qualifiers

The remaining eight teams entered the tournament via the regional qualifiers. The biggest upset during the qualifiers was Uganda joining Namibia from the African leg after beating Zimbabwe — who had participated in every edition except 2009 (withdrawn) and 2021 (suspended).

Here are the teams categorised on the basis of their respective regions:

Europe: Ireland and Scotland.

Asia: Nepal and Oman

Africa: Uganda and Namibia

Americas: Canada

East Asia-Pacific: Papua New Guinea