Bangladesh withdraws from T20 World Cup 2026; replaced by Scotland

Bangladesh have withdrawn from the T20 World Cup 2026, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, citing security concerns, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Saturday.

Scotland have been named as Bangladesh cricket team’s replacement and will take their place in Group C alongside England, West Indies, Nepal and Italy.

Bangladesh were to play West Indies, England and Italy in Kolkata before playing their final group game in Mumbai on February 17.

The announcement comes after the ICC rejected the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s request to move their matches from India to Sri Lanka reasoning that “there was no credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team.”

This will be the first edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held without Bangladesh, who have featured in all previous nine editions since the competition’s inception in 2007.

The ICC on Wednesday noted that it was not feasible to alter the match schedule or venues at such a late stage. The schedule for the T20 World Cup 2026 was out in November last year.

Scotland secured the T20 World Cup berth as the next-highest ranked T20I team. They are currently world No. 14. They are ahead in the rankings of seven teams already in the tournament, Namibia, UAE, Nepal, USA, Canada, Oman and Italy.

At the 2024 T20 World Cup, they finished third in Group B, level on points with England but were knocked out due to net run rate.

In 2022, Scotland stunned West Indies in the group stage but couldn’t qualify for the Super 12s.

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