Cricket T20 World Cup 2022: When and where is it, and how does it work?

Jack Goddard

11 October 2022

The Cricket T20 World Cup returns on Sunday and England will be desperate to win the crown that should have been theirs 12 months ago.

England blasted through the Super 12 stage in the United Arab Emirates last year, winning their group and absolutely dismantling eventual champions Australia before being surprisingly dumped out by New Zealand in their semi-final.

Jos Buttler’s men will strongly fancy their chances of righting those wrongs this time around. You can find our predictions below, along with everything else you need to know before the action begins later this week.

What is the T20 World Cup and how does it work?

The T20 World Cup broadly takes place every two years, with 2022’s competition brought forward in order to avoid a clash with the Cricket World Cup next year.

This is the eighth edition of the tournament. The West Indies have won the T20 World Cup twice before, while India, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka and Australia have each lifted the trophy once.

The 2022 edition will be competed by 16 teams. It begins with an eight-team group stage, featuring the lowest-ranked countries in the tournament. The eight sides are split into two groups, with Namibia, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, and UAE contesting Group A, and Ireland, Scotland, the West Indies and Zimbabwe in Group B.

The two group winners and two runners-up will be split between two new groups of six for the Super 12 stage. The eight highest-ranked T20 nations are introduced at this point: Afghanistan, Australia, England and New Zealand have already been drawn into Group 1, while Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and South Africa are in Group 2.

Each country will then play every other team in their group once, before the group winners and runners-up again progress, this time to the semi-finals. The winner of Group 1 will play the runner-up of Group 2 and vice versa, with the two victors competing in the final.

Where is the T20 World Cup 2022 being held?

The T20 World Cup is taking place in Australia for the first time, with the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground - and its capacity crowd of 100,000 people - hosting the final on November 13.

The other host venues will be the Adelaide Oval, Sydney Cricket Ground, Perth Stadium, The Gabba in Brisbane, Kardinia Park in Geelong, and the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

When does the T20 World Cup 2022 start?

The T20 World Cup starts on Sunday, October 16, with the opening game between Sri Lanka and Namibia beginning at 5am BST. As the tournament is taking place in Australia, almost every game will be played early in the morning for UK viewers, although most will take place from 8am onwards.

The first group stage concludes on Friday, October 21, with the Super 12 (where the real action begins) commencing the very next day - Australia and New Zealand kick things off at 8am. England’s first game will be on Saturday, October 22, too - they play at the much more appropriate time of 12pm against Afghanistan.

The semi-finals will take place at 8am on Wednesday, November 9, and Thursday, November 10, before the final, which begins at 8am on Sunday, November 13.

Virat Kohli, wearing a blue shirt with 'India' written across the middle in orange letters, plays a cut shot in a T20 match

Will India be in the T20 World Cup final on November 13?

What happened at the last T20 World Cup?

The England cricket team inexplicably crashed out of the last World Cup in 2021 after dominating their group, which included eventual winners Australia.

The Australians beat New Zealand in the final by chasing down a target of 173 with eight wickets and seven balls to spare.

They also vanquished Pakistan in the semi-finals in a shock result - Pakistan had won all five of their group games and looked destined for a final showdown with England.

The tournament was overshadowed somewhat by the UAE’s pitches, and the dew that severely favoured any team that batted second - it not only made the ball slippery and difficult to grip for the bowlers, but also led to a faster outfield that meant the side batting second were more likely to score boundaries.

From the Super 12 stage onwards, the team that batted second won on 22 occasions, whereas the team that batted first claimed victory just 12 times. In both semi-finals and the final, the side that batted second won the match, which may go some way to explaining Australia’s unlikely victory. It has left many aggrieved teams feeling as if they have a score to settle.

Who’s going to win the T20 World Cup 2022?

Australia can’t be so reliant on dodgy pitch conditions this time around, but they will of course be at home and roared on by passionate Aussie crowds. Due to this - and the fact they are the defending champions - they are the current favourites at 3.95.

Prior to their ongoing three-match series with England, Aaron Finch’s side have a pretty solid record in T20s this year, winning four of their five series - although three of those were against Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Australia beat Pakistan in a one-off test match too, but of more consequence perhaps is their 2-1 series loss to India.

With Finch and David Warner at the crease and Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa bowling, Australia can beat anyone. But, if it wasn’t for home advantage, I would fancy four other sides - England, India, South Africa and Pakistan - above them for the World Cup title.

England just played out a thrilling seven-match series in Pakistan, in which stand-in captain Moeen Ali led his side to a narrow 4-3 victory. There is clearly very little to separate them, but special attention must be paid to each country’s openers, all four of whom are absolutely world class.

Babar Azam is arguably the best batsman in the world right now across all three formats and was unplayable at times in the recent series with England, with an average of 57 that included two not-out figures of 110 and 87. However, it’s teammate Mohammad Rizwan, not Azam, who is objectively the best T20 batsman in the world as he tops the ICC batsman rankings for this version of the game.

Meanwhile, England’s new captain Jos Buttler headed up the IPL run-scoring table earlier this year with 863 runs at an average of 57.53. His strike rate of 149.05 was higher than any of the other top ten run scorers.

Buttler’s opening partner Alex Hales was recently recalled to the England side after impressing during The Hundred, and has already made scores of 53 against Pakistan and 84 against Australia in the seven games since his return. He also has good form down under - previously top scorer in the domestic Big Bash League - so could be a dark horse for top run scorer.