T20 World Cup 2021: draws to be announced on Friday, Sourav Ganguly..

T20 World Cup has been shifted from India to UAE and Oman

The much-awaited draws for the upcoming T20 World Cup will be announced on Friday, India Today has learnt.

The announcement will be made in a ceremony attended by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, board secretary Jay Shah and other ICC officials at around 3:30 pm.

The exact match schedule will take another week but the groups will be announced tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if arch-rivals India and Pakistan, who won the first 2 editions of the tournament, are paired in the same group.

Notably, the showpiece event was shifted from India to UAE and Oman in the wake of the coronavirus situation in the country.

However, the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event, which will now be held across four venues Dubai International Stadium, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground.

The first round of the tournament, comprising the eight qualifying teams, will now be split between Oman and UAE. Four of these teams will then progress to the Super 12s round where they’ll join the eight automatic qualifiers.

The upcoming edition will be the first Mens T20 World Cup played since 2016 when West Indies beat England in the final in India. The 8 teams competing in the preliminary stage are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, and Papua New Guinea, before the play-off stage and the final on November 14.

Also Read: England vs Pakistan 2021, T20I Series Stats Preview: Player records and approaching milestones