ICC T20 World Cup 2021: India to face Pakistan after 5 years in T20 cricket

India and Pakistan will square off for the first after five years in a T20 International match at the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the groups for T20 World Cup on Friday. The event will be hosted by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Oman and United Arab Emirates from October 17 to November 14.

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India and Pakistan have been placed in the same group as the teams were picked on the basis of team rankings as of March 20, 2021.The remaining two teams in each group would be after the completion of Round 1 of ICC T20 World Cup.

India vs Pakistan head to head in T20 WCs

India enjoys a 5-0 superiority against Pakistan across all editions of the T20 World Cup. The last T20 match played between the two teams was in 2016 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata during T20 World Cup. India emerged victorious in that match as it defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets.

WATCH: India vs Pakistan in ICC T20 World Cup 2016




What is round 1 of ICC T20 World Cup?

Round 1 will have eight teams, including automatic qualifiers Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, playing against the six teams who booked their spot through a qualifying event in 2019 in the UAE.

Ireland, the Netherlands and Namibia join Sri Lanka in Group A. Group B has Oman, PNG and Scotland are joined by Bangladesh.

Top two teams from both groups will progress to the Super 12 stage.

Groupings: Round 1

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, the Netherlands and Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Oman

Super 12 gorups

Group 1 comprises defending champions West Indies pooled alongside 2010 champions England, Australia and South Africa along with two qualifiers from Round 1 joining them.

Group 2 comprises 2007 champions India, 2009 winners Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and two qualifiers from Round 1.

"We are delighted to announce the groups for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. There are some great match ups offered by the groups and it starts to bring the event to life for our fans as our first multi-team event since the onset of the global pandemic draws closer," said ICC's acting CEO Geoff Allardice.

"Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, we selected the cutoff date as close as possible to the event to ensure we were able to include the maximum amount of cricket in the rankings which determine the groups."

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was delighted upon Oman being part of the mega event.

"It is good to get Oman in the frame of world cricket with the hosting of the ICC men's T20 World Cup. It will help a lot of young players take an interest in the game. We know it will be a world class event in this part of the world."