ICC announces fixtures of men & women's T20 World Cup 2020

Dubai, Jan 29 (IANS) The Indian women's team will start their T20 World Cup 2020 campaign against hosts and defending champions Australia, while the men's team will face South Africa in their T20 World Cup opener as the ICC on Tuesday announced that both the tournaments will be held as standalone events in the same year and the same country.

The women's T20 World Cup will run from February 21 to March 8 in 2020, followed by the men's T20 World Cup from October 18 to November 15.

The finals of both the tournaments will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

A total of 10 women teams will contest 23 matches and 16 men teams will contest 45 matches across Australia in eight host cities and 13 venues. 

After playing their opening match against Australia in Sydney, the Indian women, who are placed in Group A, will play a qualifier in Perth on February 24 before facing New Zealand and Sri Lanka on February 27 and 29 in Melbourne. The semi-finals of the Women's T20 World Cup are slated for March 5 in Sydney before the final on March 8 in Melbourne.

The eight top women's teams, according to their finishing positions at the World T20 2018 in the West Indies, have gained automatic qualification to the tournament, with the remaining two teams to be determined through a qualifying tournament to be held later in 2019.

Meanwhile, the men-in-blue, placed in Group B, will directly play the Super 12 and face the Proteas on October 24 in Perth before facing a qualifier and England on October 29 and November 1, respectively in Melbourne. 

On November 5, India will face another Group B qualifier at Adelaide before playing their last group stage match against Afghanistan on November 8 in Sydney.

Barring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, that finished 9th and 10th respectively in the rankings as on December 31, 2018, the eight top-ranked T20I sides have automatically qualified for the Super 12. 

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will play six other teams in the qualifying round before proceeding to the Super 12 stage. The six teams will be picked through another qualifying tournament this year.

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IANS