Group One
Pakistan
“It’s simple,” said Shadab Khan after Pakistan’s last group game, a one-sided encounter with Namibia. “We just have to keep doing the good things we’ve been doing. Our openers are giving us good starts in almost every match. In bowling, we have to keep hitting the right areas consistently. I think we’re on the right track.” Pakistan have, indeed, done everything that could have been asked of them, except in their one genuinely high-pressure match – against India – when they were shambolic and outclassed. It’s simple – they just have to stop doing the bad things they’ve been doing.
Key player Having played just five times across 2023 and 2024, the spin-bowling all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz has been Pakistan’s best-performing bowler since he returned to the side in the middle of 2025, taking 48 wickets at 14.6. No other Pakistan player has more than 32.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka lost all three games in their final warmup series against England, started the tournament they are co-hosting by beating Ireland, a match largely determined by the Irish forgetting how to catch, and ended the group stage by being outperformed by Zimbabwe. In the meantime, the seamer Matheesha Pathirana strained a leg muscle and has been ruled out of the tournament, as has the all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, who pulled a hamstring. None of this makes inspiring reading, and smashing Oman doesn’t really make them stand out either. But then they beat Australia, and for all that this Australia team are not the scalp they sometimes are, this was a glimpse of what Sri Lanka could be.
Key player Pathum Nissanka’s 52-ball century against Australia was a near-perfect high-pressure T20 innings, and just the fifth time a Sri Lankan has scored a T20 century. Nissanka also got the previous one, against India last September.
Quick Guide
Group One fixtures
Show
All matches 1.30pm GMT unless stated
Sat 21 Feb New Zealand v Pakistan, Colombo
Sun 22 Feb Sri Lanka v England, Kandy 9.30am
Tue 24 Feb England v Pakistan, Kandy
Wed 25 Feb Sri Lanka v New Zealand, Colombo
Fri 27 Feb England v New Zealand, Colombo
Sat 28 Feb Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Kandy
England
England bat deep, and they’ve had to: after Jacob Bethell, their next highest scorers across the group stage were Will Jacks and Sam Curran, who have come in at Nos 6 and 7. Their top four scored 354 runs between them (with Bethell contributing 40% of that total) – the other eight sides that managed fewer than 400 have all been knocked out. And they have managed only three partnerships of 50 runs or more – the other nine sides with three or fewer have all been knocked out. But if they have been largely unconvincing, now they go back to Sri Lanka, where they enjoyed a successful visit in the buildup, to compete in a group that has more than one similarly underwhelming side.
Key player Sam Curran has scored 98 runs at an average of 32.66, putting him third on England’s run-getting list, and taken six wickets at an average of 19.66, putting him joint first (a four-way tie with Jofra Archer, Jamie Overton and Adil Rashid) of England’s wicket-getting list, while also shouldering death-over duties.
New Zealand
New Zealand have reached at least the semi-finals in three of the past four T20 World Cups and are well placed to repeat that feat this year. As well as being in the weaker of the two groups – the one with no first-stage group winners – they have the unique advantage of playing all three Super 8s matches at the same venue, the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where they happen to have a 100% record (albeit their two previous matches there were played in the space of three days in 2009). Plus, Rachin Ravindra seems to have finally emerged from a deep funk with an unbeaten half-century against Canada in their final group game.
Key player Across the past two years Tim Seifert has scored nearly twice as many runs in T20 internationals as any other Kiwi. After starting the tournament with half-centuries against Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates, he has faltered in their two most recent matches, but a return to form is due.
Group Two
India
The pre-tournament favourites have won the (joint) most games, scored the most runs and hit the most sixes, and remain solidly on course to defend their title. Abhishek Sharma may have been the most profound disappointment of the tournament so far, the world’s top-ranked T20 batter yet to score a run after three innings, but with the bat someone always stands up, and with the ball they have Jasprit Bumrah (though their most effective bowler in terms of wickets taken, and leading the world rankings, is the spinner Varun Chakravarthy). A batting lineup that features six left-handers in the first-choice top eight is not ideal, and frailties against off-spin have been noted. As has fallible fielding – no side remaining in the competition have dropped more catches.
Key player With Abhishek underperforming, Ishan Kishan has risen to the occasion, hitting 61 against Namibia and following it up with a 41-ball 77 against Pakistan. Kishan did not play an international match between November 2023 and last month but now looks in fantastic touch.
Quick Guide
Group Two fixtures
Show
All matches 1.30pm GMT unless stated
Sun 22 Feb India v South Africa, Ahmedabad
Mon 23 Feb Zimbabwe v West Indies, Mumbai
Thu 26 Feb West Indies v South Africa, Ahmedabad 9.30am
Thu 26 Feb India v Zimbabwe, Chennai
Sun 1 Mar Zimbabwe v South Africa, Delhi 9.30am
Sun 1 Mar India v West Indies, Kolkata
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe boast the best seam attack in the tournament, with Blessing Muzarabani and Brad Evans responsible for 17 wickets between them. They lost only eight wickets across the group stage, two of them in a manic penultimate over against Sri Lanka, which for all that they only played three times is astonishing. The average Zimbabwe batter scored 54.75, more than double the equivalent figure for England, India or Pakistan. Beating Australia was a magnificent achievement, but Zimbabwe did not stop there. They have been a phenomenon.
Key player The opener Brian Bennett has played three innings, scored 175 runs at a strike rate of 125 and not been dismissed once. There has never been a run of form quite like it. If the 22-year-old can continue it, there may be a few more shocks yet.
West Indies
Owners of one of three 100% records in the tournament, West Indies have steamrollered every obstacle they’ve come up against. “There’s a different level of enthusiasm and focus when it comes to a World Cup. This is a big tournament, this is the biggest stage. We all want to be there at the end,” says the captain, Shai Hope. “We know what it takes to get there. And you can see it from the outside, and I can definitely tell you from within, you can feel it. We really want it.”
Key player For all that they’ve taken more wickets than any other team, it is West Indies’ batting that has powered them through the group stage. One of their batters has scored 60 or more in every match so far and if Shimron Hetmyer, man of the match against Scotland, keeps turning up, his team will keep being hard to beat.
South Africa
South Africa continue to impress. World Test champions, beaten finalists in 2024, hosts of the next 50-over World Cup, cricket superpower, they coasted to three straightforward victories in the group stages. They also scrapped to one messy double-super-over-decided tie against Afghanistan in which all sorts of fallibilities were exposed. They start the Super 8s against India and 100,000 hostile fans in Ahmedabad, and how they respond will demonstrate whether they are serious contenders to go one better than last time. On the plus side, they played India there just two months ago; on the downside, they were comfortably beaten when they did.
Key player Tasked with defending 13 runs in the final over against Afghanistan, Kagiso Rabada fell apart, bowling a wide, two no-balls and one rubbish delivery that Noor Ahmad dispatched into the stands. Will need to stand up better to more pressure.