T20 World Cup 2026: How Scotland replaced Bangladesh?

The Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 finally got off to a start on February 7. The opening day had no shortage of twists and turns, similar to how a few things happened before the tournament started.

There was a lot of drama in the weeks leading up to the tournament. Bangladesh wanted to shift their matches to Sri Lanka. The ICC said it’s not feasible.

But Bangladesh stuck to their stance. And the ICC had no other option but to replace them with Scotland at the very last moment.

So, how did Scotland replace Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2026?

See, Scotland were not one of the 20 qualified teams. While they played in the Europe regional qualifiers, they finished fourth in the five-team tournament.

Since only two sports were up for grabs, the Netherlands and Italy advanced to the main event.

So, how did Scotland replace Bangladesh? Simply based on their ICC team ranking.

Once Bangladesh’s non-participation was confirmed, the ICC sprang into action. They decided to include the highest-ranked team in place of Bangladesh.

Since Scotland were the highest-ranked, 14th to be precise, among the non-qualified teams, the ICC invited them. 

Have teams been replaced in previous ICC tournaments?

Yes. There have been a few instances. Notably, Scotland benefited on two of the occasions.

Back in July 2008, Zimbabwe withdrew from the 2009 T20 World Cup as England’s government was reluctant to issue visas to their players. 

At that time, ICC didn’t rely on rankings. Rather, they tweaked the qualifying criteria for the qualifier tournament already scheduled in August 2008.

As per the initial criteria, only two teams were supposed to advance further. But with Zimbabwe’s withdrawal confirmed, the ICC decided to add another team from the qualifier.

And guess what? Scotland qualified for the 2009 T20 World Cup as they won the third-place playoff.

Even in the Under-19 Men’s World Cup, there have been two such instances. 

In 2016, Australia refused to travel to Bangladesh due to security reasons. So, Ireland replaced them as they were the runners-up of the qualifier tournament held in 2015. 

Scotland were in a similar situation in the 2022 Under-19 Men’s World Cup. They replaced New Zealand, who withdrew due to a stringent quarantine protocol placed on their return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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