England T20 World Cup 2026 Fixtures, Dates & Venues

The England T20 World Cup 2026 fixtures have all been played. England began in Group C at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 8 February, went through the Super Eight stage unbeaten, and were knocked out by India in the second semi-final in Mumbai on 5 March by seven runs in the highest-scoring match in the tournament's history. Eight matches, six wins, one defeat, and one of the great near-misses. The full fixture list, with UK start times and venues, is below.

Every England fixture, result and UK start time

The tournament ran from 7 February to 8 March 2026, staged jointly by India and Sri Lanka. England's group games were all played in India, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and Eden Gardens in Kolkata; the Super Eight took them to Kandy and Colombo; the semi-final brought them back to Mumbai.

Date	Stage	Opponent	Venue	Result
8 Feb	Group C	Nepal	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	England won by 4 runs
11 Feb	Group C	West Indies	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	West Indies won by 30 runs
14 Feb	Group C	Scotland	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	England won by 5 wickets
16 Feb	Group C	Italy	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	England won by 24 runs
22 Feb	Super Eight	Sri Lanka	Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy	England won by 51 runs
24 Feb	Super Eight	Pakistan	Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy	England won by 2 wickets
27 Feb	Super Eight	New Zealand	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	England won by 4 wickets
5 Mar	Semi-final	India	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai	India won by 7 runs

British viewers had it easier than usual. Because the whole tournament was played five and a half hours ahead of GMT, matches slotted into three daily windows: 5.30am, 9.30am and 1.30pm UK time. England's opener against Nepal started at 9.30am on a Sunday morning, the West Indies game at 1.30pm on the Wednesday, and the Scotland match at 9.30am on the Saturday. Nothing required staying up past midnight, which is not something England supporters could say about the 2015 or 2022 tournaments in Australia.

Group C: who England had to beat, and who they nearly played

England were drawn in Group C alongside West Indies, Nepal, Italy and, originally, Bangladesh. The group changed shape a fortnight before the first ball. On 24 January the Bangladesh Cricket Board's request to move its matches out of India was refused by the ICC, Bangladesh withdrew, and Scotland — the next-highest ranked side available — were called up in their place. It was the first men's T20 World Cup staged without Bangladesh since the competition began in 2007, and it meant the fixture a lot of people had already booked a morning off for became England against Scotland instead.

Italy were the other novelty. This was their first appearance at a global tournament of any kind, and they were not there to make up the numbers — they bowled Nepal out and won by ten wickets in Mumbai, then pushed England to 202 for seven before losing by 24 runs.

The top two from each of the four groups of five went through to the Super Eight. England finished second in Group C behind West Indies, who beat them on 11 February and were the only side to lower the English colours all month.

Match by match: the group stage

England 184/7 beat Nepal 180/6 by 4 runs, Wankhede, 8 February. A four-run win over a side ranked far below them was not the start anybody at Sky or in the away end had drawn up. Jacob Bethell made 55 from 35 and Harry Brook 53 from 32 in a stand of 71; Will Jacks added 39 from 18 at the death. Nepal then took it to the final delivery. Dipendra Singh Airee made 44, the captain Rohit Paudel 39, and Lokesh Bam finished 39 not out. Sam Curran had ten to defend in the twentieth over and defended it. The full account of that opening match is worth reading on its own.

West Indies 196/6 beat England 166 all out by 30 runs, Wankhede, 11 February. England's only defeat of the tournament, and a chastening one. West Indies were 8 for 2 and recovered through Sherfane Rutherford's unbeaten 76, seven sixes in it. England's chase never got going against spin: Gudakesh Motie took 3 for 33, Roston Chase two more, and only Curran's 43 not out offered much. What went wrong against the West Indies shaped the rest of England's month, because it left them needing to win everything else.

England 155/5 beat Scotland 152 all out by 5 wickets, Eden Gardens, 14 February. Scotland had been in the country for a fortnight. They still made England bat into the nineteenth over.

England 202/7 beat Italy 178 all out by 24 runs, Eden Gardens, 16 February. Italy's chase reached 178 before they were bowled out on the final ball, the sort of scoreline that would have been unimaginable from an associate side a decade ago.

The Super Eight run

Qualifying second meant a Super Eight group with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand, all played in Sri Lanka, and England won the lot.

Sri Lanka were beaten by 51 runs in Kandy on 22 February in a low-scoring game — England made only 146 for nine, then bowled the hosts out for 95 in 16.4 overs on a pitch that gripped. Two days later, at the same ground, England chased 165 against Pakistan and got home by two wickets with five balls to spare. On 27 February in Colombo they chased down New Zealand's 159 for seven with three balls in hand to win by four wickets and top the group.

Three wins from three, two of them by narrow margins in the last over. This England side had a habit all tournament of making things harder than they needed to be and then winning anyway.

Super Eight fixture	Venue	England's score	Margin
v Sri Lanka, 22 Feb	Pallekele, Kandy	146/9 (20)	Won by 51 runs
v Pakistan, 24 Feb	Pallekele, Kandy	166/8 (19.1)	Won by 2 wickets
v New Zealand, 27 Feb	R. Premadasa, Colombo	161/6 (19.3)	Won by 4 wickets

The semi-final at the Wankhede

England were seven runs and one over from a final. India batted first at the Wankhede on 5 March and made 253 for seven, Sanju Samson hitting 89 from 42. England replied with 246 for seven. Jacob Bethell made 105 from 48 balls, the innings of his life, and Jofra Archer hit three sixes in the last over when 30 were needed. The 499 runs scored between the two sides were the most in any men's T20 World Cup fixture. Jasprit Bumrah conceded 33 from his four overs on that pitch and removed Harry Brook, which was more or less the difference.

India went on to beat New Zealand by 96 runs in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, becoming the first men's side to win three T20 World Cups and the first host nation to win one. The full tournament record, including every group table and knockout result, is in the 2026 T20 World Cup archive.

How the format worked

Twenty teams, four groups of five, top two from each group into a Super Eight of two groups of four, then semi-finals and a final. It was the same structure used in the 2024 tournament in the Caribbean and the United States, and it survives the obvious criticism — that it gives associate sides only four guaranteed matches — better than the 2021 and 2022 formats did, because those four matches are against opposition of a broadly similar level rather than a fixed set of Test nations.

For England it meant seven matches to reach a semi-final, more cricket than any England side had played at a T20 World Cup before. Harry Brook captained throughout, having taken on the white-ball job after the 2025 restructure of the England leadership.

Where the fixtures were played

Five Indian grounds and three Sri Lankan ones staged the tournament. England saw four of them.

• Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai — three England matches, including the semi-final. Short square boundaries, a sea breeze off Marine Drive in the evening, and a surface that gave England both their opening win and their exit.
• Eden Gardens, Kolkata — the Scotland and Italy games. Capacity above 60,000, the largest ground England played at.
• Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy — both Super Eight matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, in the hills above Kandy, where the ball turned.
• R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo — the New Zealand game that sealed top spot in the Super Eight group.

Travel for English supporters followed the usual pattern for a subcontinental tournament: direct flights from Heathrow to Mumbai and Delhi, a change at a Gulf hub for Colombo, and internal flights rather than trains between the Indian venues. Tour operators with ECB-approved packages sold the group phase and semi-final as separate blocks. Anyone planning for the next global event should check pricing directly with the operator rather than relying on figures quoted for 2026.

What the tournament said about England

The 2026 campaign was the first real evidence that the rebuild after the 2024 exit had worked. England lost once, to the eventual Super Eight leaders in their group, and then won five in a row before running into 253 in a semi-final. Bethell finished the tournament as the story: a 55 in the opener, a hundred in the semi-final, and a place in the top order that nobody is taking off him. Curran's death bowling won the Nepal game, Archer's pace held up across seven matches in heat, and Brook's captaincy survived a start that could easily have unravelled.

The longer arc of that white-ball approach — the 2015 reset, Eoin Morgan, the 2019 and 2022 trophies — is covered in the guide to England's white-ball revolution, and the wider story of the national side sits in the history of England cricket.

Frequently asked questions

How many matches did England play at the T20 World Cup 2026?

Eight: four group games in India, three Super Eight matches in Sri Lanka, and the semi-final against India at the Wankhede Stadium on 5 March.

Did England win the T20 World Cup 2026?

No. England reached the semi-final and lost to India by seven runs. India beat New Zealand in the final in Ahmedabad on 8 March.

What time were the England T20 World Cup 2026 fixtures in the UK?

Matches started at 5.30am, 9.30am or 1.30pm GMT depending on the local slot. England's opener against Nepal began at 9.30am UK time, the West Indies match at 1.30pm and the Scotland match at 9.30am.

Where could you watch England at the T20 World Cup 2026 in the UK?

Sky Sports Cricket held the UK television rights, with streaming through Sky Go, the Sky Sports app and a NOW Sports membership. The BBC held UK audio rights, with commentary on 5 Live, 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds. General guidance on following the game from the UK is in the guide to watching cricket in the UK.

Why did England play Scotland instead of Bangladesh?

Bangladesh withdrew on 24 January 2026 after the ICC declined to move their matches out of India. Scotland were named as their replacement in Group C at a fortnight's notice.

Who was England's leading player at the 2026 tournament?

Jacob Bethell had the tournament of his career, with 55 in the opening win over Nepal and 105 from 48 balls in the semi-final. Harry Brook captained the side and Jofra Archer led the attack across all eight matches.

Where to go next

The individual match guides for England v Nepal and the rest of the group stage sit alongside this fixture list in the England cricket section. For the domestic season that followed, the eight-team city competition has its own hub at The Hundred, and the county game that feeds the England side is set out in cricket in England.