ICC Confirms New T20 World Cup Format for 2028: Five Groups, Super 10, and New Eliminator Round

The ICC has approved a major shake-up of the T20 World Cup format, starting with the 2028 edition. The changes were confirmed at the ICC's Annual Conference in Edinburgh.

The tournament will still have 20 teams, but the group stage now moves to five groups of four, up from four groups of five. That means 30 group games instead of 40. The top two from each group progress to a new Super 10 stage, replacing the old Super Eights. This round has two groups of five teams playing round-robin, a jump from 12 matches to 20.

The biggest change is what happens after that. Only the team that finishes top of its Super 10 group goes straight to the semi-final. The teams that finish second and third now play each other in a new Eliminator round, with the second-placed side from one group facing the third-placed side from the other. The two Eliminator winners take the remaining semi-final spots.

The ICC said the changes were shaped by how well emerging teams performed at the 2026 World Cup, and are meant to keep more teams in contention for longer while making the closing Super 10 matches count for more.

Alongside the format change, the ICC also confirmed the qualification path to 2028. Twelve teams have already qualified based on their 2026 results and current rankings: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe. Scotland gets a direct spot in the Europe Regional Final because of the unusual circumstances around their 2026 entry, having come in as a late replacement for Bangladesh. The rest, including Canada, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, UAE, and the USA, will go through the Global Qualifier along with teams coming through regional qualifying.

The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup also got a format overhaul at the same meeting, moving to a new three-stage structure for its 2027 edition.