The news was inevitable and predictable but now, it's official! Scotland have replaced Bangladesh in T20 World Cup 2026 with the International Cricket Council (ICC) having begun the documentation process for the same. On January 20, the ICC had declined the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) request for relocating Bangladesh's matches and also informed them that failure to travel would lead to replacement.
Although the ICC gave an extension of 24 hours to the BCB for a potential change in heart, the Bangladesh government was realistically never going to relent. As a result, the BCB stuck to their initial stance of not travelling to India and as expected, Scotland have been named as the official replacement in Group C.
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Scotland will join England, West Indies, Italy and Nepal in the group, and are scheduled to play all their games in India. Three of Scotland's games will be at Eden Gardens, Kolkata while the other fixture is slated to be held at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta has begun the documentation process but sending e-mails to all board members including BCB's president.
Additionally, an official invite for T20 World Cup 2026 has been sent to Cricket Scotland from ICC but the Scottish counterparts are yet to respond to this mail. However, the ICC and Cricket Scotland have been in constant discussions since the last 12 hours, hence the matter is already close to being closed.
Scotland's current T20I ranking is 14, making them the eligible team to replace any of the initial teams if they were to withdraw, like Bangladesh have done. The Scots have been part of the previous three T20 World Cup editions and will be jubilant over their surprise inclusion for 2026.
