Scotland officially replaces Bangladesh in ICC T20 World Cup 2026

Scotland were the highest ranked T20I side not to originally qualify for the T20 World Cup 2026.

In what has been the latest development, Scotland Cricket Team have officially replaced Bangladesh Cricket Team for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026. The governing body released an official statement on Saturday, January 24, confirming that the Litton Das-led side refused to participate in the tournament.

The ICC T20 World Cup 2026 begins in India and Sri Lanka on February 7, and since the last few weeks Bangladesh have become the hot soup in regard to the tournament. This all started after, due to political tensions, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) urged Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release Mustafizur Rahman from their squad.

This didn’t go well with Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) as they called an emergency meeting and then stated that they will not broadcast Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 in Bangladesh. Not only this, they also stated that, in accordance with government, they have decided that they won’t send Bangladesh Cricket Team to India for the T20 World Cup 2026.

BCB then wrote to International Cricket Council (ICC) and urged them to change their group, shifting their games from India to Sri Lanka, citing security reasons. But, ICC denied all that and gave them 24-hour deadline to confirm their participation. However, they failed to do so and were thrown out of T20 World Cup 2026.

ICC removes Bangladesh from T20 World Cup 2026; Scotland officially added

The ICC released an official statement on the matter and stated:

“The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that Scotland will replace Bangladesh in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to participate in the tournament per the published match schedule.

“The announcement comes after the ICC, in the absence of any credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team in India, rejected the BCB’s demand to move its matches from India to Sri Lanka, in the 20-team tournament to be played from 7 February to 8 March.

“The decision follows an extensive process undertaken by the ICC to address concerns raised by the BCB regarding the hosting of its scheduled matches in India. Over a period of more than three weeks, the ICC engaged with the BCB through multiple rounds of dialogue conducted in a transparent and constructive manner, including meetings held both via video conference and in-person.”

The ICC further added that despite IBC Board request’s, BCB didn’t respond in the given deadline, and they had to take the harsh step. They also revealed how Scotland made an entry into the event over other teams.

“Following its meeting on Wednesday, the IBC Board requested the BCB to confirm, within a 24-hour timeframe, whether Bangladesh would participate in the tournament as scheduled. As no confirmation was received within the stipulated deadline, the ICC proceeded in line with its established governance and qualification processes to identify a replacement team.

“Scotland are the highest-ranked T20I side not to originally qualify for the tournament. They are currently ranked 14th, ahead of seven teams already in the tournament, Namibia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nepal, the United States of America (USA), Canada, Oman and Italy,” the ICC stated.

Scotland will replace Bangladesh in Group C and will there alongside West Indies, Italy, England and Nepal. They will play their first three games in Kolkata – West Indies (February 7), Italy (February 9) and England (February 14) before taking on Nepal in their final league game in Mumbai (February 17).

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