New Delhi, Jan 24 Scotland's cricket team is all set to replace Bangladesh in the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, which will be played in India and Sri Lanka from February 7.
A source close to the development told IANS that ICC has reached this decision after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) remained firm on its stance of not traveling to India. The official confirmation from the governing body will come soon.
‘Since the ICC released its statement earlier this week and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) appears adamant about not travelling to India, Scotland is set to replace Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup. An official confirmation is expected very soon,” ICC sources told IANS on Saturday.
Bangladesh earlier informed the ICC that they would not travel to India due to security concerns amid deteriorating relations between the two nations and requested that their matches be relocated to Sri Lanka. However, the ICC reiterated that the T20 World Cup will proceed as per schedule, with Bangladesh’s matches to be played in India.
This follows the BCCI's direction to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release pacer Mustafizur Rahman for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 amid prevailing political tensions between the two countries.
ICC also gave a 24-hour deadline to BCB for conveying its final decision on playing the tournament as planned.
Scotland is the top-ranked team not to have qualified for the global event and is the first option to replace Bangladesh after the country decided to stick to its position of not travelling to India, even after a vote on this issue yielded a 14-2 verdict against them in the ICC.
Scotland will now be placed in Group C in the preliminary stage of the tournament. They will play against the West Indies on February 7, Italy on February 9, and England on February 14 in Kolkata. Scotland will play its final group stage game in Mumbai against Nepal on February 17.
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