T20 World Cup 2024 Q&A: Do you have to wake up early to watch India’s matches? And other key questions answered

What’s new at Men’s T20 WC 2024?

It is the first ICC event that will be played in the USA while on the other hand, West Indies become the first team in the history of the tournament to host the event twice. They hosted the tournament in 2010 when England beat Australia. Good omens for the defending champions, perhaps? Canada, Uganda and co-hosts USA are all set to appear in their first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. And in a welcome move, the 2024 men’s edition is the biggest in terms of teams participating – 20 in total – making the world in the World Cup a little more relevant.

What’s not new?

The constancy of two players. India’s Rohit Sharma and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan are set to become the only players to participate in all nine editions of the tournament. Rohit was part of the tournament-winning team in 2007 under MS Dhoni.

Where are the USA venues?

In the United States, the three cities that will host matches are New York, Texas and Florida, sharing 16 matches between them. New York will host eight of these matches, including the marquee India-Pakistan clash. USA will host only the initial group-stage matches.

What about the Windies?

Six Caribbean nations will host 39 matches. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago will host these games across three stages of the tournament. The final will be played in Barbados on June 29.

24 group stage fixtures, all 12 second round matches, both semi-finals, and the tournament final 🏆🏟️

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Who are the teams and how did they get here?

USA and West Indies qualified as hosts. Then came the top 8 of the 2022 edition: England, Pakistan, India, New Zealand were the four semifinalists and from Super 12, it was Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Netherlands. Afghanistan and Bangladesh made it based on the world rankings. Then, through the various qualifying events, Ireland, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Nepal, Oman and Uganda made the cut.

What’s the format then?

To start off, the 20 teams have been divided into four groups with predetermined seedings: so A1 is India, B2 is Australia and so forth. This is important because it determines the Super 8 groups. More on that later. Teams play each other in the first stage and top two from each group proceed to Super 8s, which will be further divided into two groups. No points are carried forward from the First Round to the Super 8.

So Super 8… what’s that all about?

The tricky part here is that the groups are almost predecided, barring any major first-round upsets. Group 1 will be A1, B2, C1, D2 and Group 2 will be A2, B1, C2, D1. This essentially means the India-Pakistan result wouldn’t really matter as long as they both win their other matches. India will still be A1 even if lose against Pakistan and finish in Group 2. In Group D, in case the standings turn out to be Bangladesh, South Africa and Sri Lanka, then SA will still be D1 while Bangladesh will be D2 instead of Sri Lanka. Yep, it’s complicated.

The team placed first in Group 1 will play the team placed second in Group 2, and the other way round, for the two semifinals.

What about ties?

Fear not New Zealand, there are no boundary countbacks. As is the case in international cricket now, any tied match in the World Cup will be decided by a Super Over, and if that is tied too, there will be subsequent Super Overs till a winner emerges.

🏆 Tournament format
📝 Groups, squads and fixtures
🏏 Special conditions and reserve days

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Do you have to wake up early to watch India?

A big factor in a World Cup being played in the Americas is the time difference of course for fans in India. But fear not, the ICC has taken good care of your sleep cycles. All of India’s matches in the group stage will be played in the morning USA time, to make sure the start time in India is 8.30 pm. And it doesn’t end there. Since India will be A1 anyway in Super 8, all of those matches are also 8.00 pm IST starts. There’s more… if India qualifies for the semifinals, they will play in the second one scheduled for Guyana on the 27 June irrespective of whether they are No 1 or 2 in Group 1. Yep, you guessed it, that starts at 8 pm too.

A quick note on reserve days

While the Guyana semifinal ensures a good viewing time in India, only the semifinal in Trinidad has a reserve day. But a maximum of 250 minutes is allocated to that match, compared to 190 for semifinal 1 and the final.

(With inputs from ICC’s Opta pack)

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