Why Zimbabwe must qualify through Africa Sub-Regional for 2026 T20 World Cup – Reason Explained

Anticipation and expectations are always high when it comes to the teams battling each other for World Cup glory in the limited-overs formats. Initially, only major cricketing nations used to play in the ODI World Cup, but with the advent of T20 cricket over the years, some newbies got the opportunity to come up the ranks and show their talent to the rest of the world.

As a result, the International Cricket Council (ICC) started organizing the 20-over World Cup, as the format was shorter, and hence more associate teams along with some lesser-knowns made their way to play with major teams like India, Pakistan, and Australia. The T20 World Cup 2024 gave the fans a chance to witness teams like USA, and Uganda taking centre stage.

While the latter had a hard time in the tournament, the United States showed an impeccable game to cause a massive upset over Pakistan. This win in particular had a drastic effect on one of the major but struggling cricket nations, Zimbabwe. To qualify for the last T20 World Cup, they had to overcome the challenge of a qualifying event at their home.

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Hence as the number of nations gradually grew in the competition, the 2026 edition of the ICC event will see 20 teams taking part in the World Cup. Notably, 12 teams have secured a direct qualification while eight more spots are still vacant to make their World Cup appearance dream come true.

Zimbabwe to play with Seychelles and Gambia in Sub-regional Africa Qualifiers

In totality, 108 countries will be part of the qualifications rounds which will decide the fate of the vacant berths available for the T20 World Cup 2026. With Zimbabwe missing out on the 2024 edition after the Yellow Cranes aka Uganda made a stunning rise to qualify for the marquee event, they will take an indirect route through the Sub-regional Africa Qualifier B tournament.

Notably, the top eight ranked teams were handed direct entry while the other two spots were based on the cut-off marked for being amongst the top 12 teams in the world. But the 17th-ranked USA’s stunning performances in their debut T20 World Cup meant that the Chevrons missed out on being the 12th-ranked team. For the unversed, apart from eight ranked teams, earlier two more sports were allocated. However, with India being the host of the next edition, they gained an automatic qualification. As a result, one more team got lucky to seal their spot among the top 11 teams.

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Hence, Zimbabwe will now have to play with countries like Gambia (Rank 95) and Seychelles (Rank 91) in the qualifying rounds if they wish to qualify ahead for the T20 World Cup. Apart from them, in their group, countries like Kenya (Rank 33), Rwanda (Rank 63), and Mozambique (Rank 64) will also present their case.

Meanwhile, apart from hosts India and Sri Lanka who will play the co-hosts, other prominent teams like Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, and the USA have already qualified for the T20 World Cup.

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