The International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup is set to complete its 10th iteration when India and Sri Lanka host the tournament between February 7 and March 8.
Three nations, including defending champions India, have won the title twice, and many more will eye the trophy with the tournament expanded to 20 teams since 2024.
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How did the T20 World Cup begin, and who were its biggest stars in the past two decades? Here’s a look back at the tournament:
2007: Sparks fly as India-Pakistan meet twice
Host: South Africa
Teams: 12
Final: India vs Pakistan
Winner: India – by five runs
Player of the tournament: Shahid Afridi
It was a tournament of many firsts – 33 T20 international (T20I) player debuts, dozens of individual and team records, and the world’s first T20 champion.
The World Cup got off to a spectacular start when Chris Gayle scored the first T20I century with his 57-ball 117 in the opening match against South Africa.
A few days later, Yuvraj Singh famously hit England fast bowler Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over and in the process, set a new record for the fastest T20I half-century (50 off 12 balls).
India and Pakistan grabbed the headlines in two separate encounters. The rivals were locked in a tied match in the Super 8 stage, resulting in a first-ever T20I bowl-out. Pakistan failed to hit the stumps in three attempts while India struck every time.
A final for the ages, then set alight the cricketing world: India vs Pakistan, last-over finish.
Pakistan needed 13 before Misbah ul Haq brought the equation down to six off four. And then – Pakistan fans look away now – Misbah scooped Joginder Sharma to S Sreesanth at fine leg to set off wild Indian celebrations. Misbah, shocked and heartbroken, remained on his haunches and India were crowned the first T20 world champions.
2009: The Home of Cricket embraces T20
Host: England
Teams: 12
Final: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
Winner: Pakistan – by eight wickets
Player of the tournament: Tillakaratne Dilshan
England’s home T20 World Cup got off to the worst possible start when they lost to the so-called minnows, the Netherlands, at Lord’s – the ground known as the “Home of Cricket”. The hosts still qualified for the Super 8s, but that is where their campaign ended, along with that of holders India and Australia, following two heavy losses.
Pakistan recovered from a typically slow start to find themselves in the semifinals, where Shahid Afridi starred against a South Africa left rueing another last-four stutter.
Tillakaratne Dilshan’s unbeaten 96 off 57 helped Sri Lanka romp to their semi with the West Indies by 57 runs.
The tournament was held a few months after the horrific armed attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus while on tour in Lahore, Pakistan. The pre-final anthems were especially poignant.
Teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir removed Dilshan for a duck to set off a batting collapse that even Kumar Sangakkara’s 52-ball 64 could not resuscitate.
Afridi duly obliged in the chase with another half-century before posing at the end in his trademark star-man celebration.
2010: England win first-ever men’s World Cup
Host: West Indies
Teams: 12
Final: Australia vs England
Winner: England – by seven wickets
Player of the tournament: Kevin Pietersen
Scheduling changes meant that the West Indies hosted the 2010 tournament less than a year after the previous one.
Afghanistan made their mark with an impressive debut amidst the continuing war at home.
Australia found their typically unforgiving World Cup form on their way to the final. Needing 48 runs in the last three overs, Michael Hussey encapsulated the never-say-die Aussie attitude by dispatching Pakistan’s bowlers – Saeed Ajmal in particular – for four sixes and two fours.
England’s explosive batting lineup powered its way to the nation’s first World Cup, which Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and co lifted after a seven-wicket win in Barbados.
2012: West Indies spoil Sri Lanka’s house party
Host: Sri Lanka
Teams: 12
Final: Sri Lanka vs West Indies
Winner: West Indies – by 36 runs
Player of the tournament: Shane Watson
When the T20 World Cup finally arrived in South Asia, India – once again – fell short, despite beating archrivals Pakistan by eight wickets in the Super 8s.
Instead, Pakistan were the team to progress on net run rate to face Sri Lanka in the semis.
The hosts’ spin wizards Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath proved too wily for Pakistan as the Lankan Lions roared into a home final.
They were joined by the big-hitting West Indies, who beat Australia by 74 runs after amassing 205 – the tournament’s joint-highest total – thanks to Gayle’s 41-ball 75.
In the final, Marlon Samuels capped an incredible year by scoring an unbeaten 78 runs while wickets fell all around him. The below-par target of 137 was enough as Sunil Narine spun a web to dismiss the hosts for 101 in 18.4 overs.
The Caribbean side’s win was termed the rebirth of West Indian cricket as Gayle and co danced away to the Korean pop hit, Gangnam Style.
2014: Veterans shine as new kids added to the block
Host: Bangladesh
Teams: 16
Final: India vs Sri Lanka
Winner: Sri Lanka – by six wickets
Player of the tournament: Virat Kohli
Hong Kong, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates made their T20 World Cup debuts as the tournament was expanded to 16 teams.
The opening match saw the Bengal Tigers bag a nine-wicket win over the hapless Afghanistan, but the hosts then lost to Hong Kong in one of the tournament’s biggest upsets.
In the first semifinal, Sri Lanka undid two years of hurt by dethroning the West Indies with a 27-run win. A few hours later, Kohli showed his supremacy with the bat as his 44-ball 72 overcame a strong South African bowling lineup.
Kohli’s blistering form helped India set a target of 131, but Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene – the leaders of Sri Lanka’s golden generation, who had been on the losing end of the 50-over World Cup final against India three years earlier – set things right.
Kohli’s 319 aggregate runs remain a T20 World Cup record.
2016: Kohli’s World Cup but West Indies win it
Host: India
Teams: 16
Final: England vs West Indies
Winner: West Indies – by four wickets
Player of the tournament: Virat Kohli
India hosted the T20 World Cup for the first time, and with a squad packed with IPL stars, they were the outright favourites.
To the delight of a packed Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata, Kohli powered India in their group to their 11th consecutive win against Pakistan in an ICC World Cup.
Kohli hit a 47-ball 89 to set a target of 193 in the semifinals, but could do little as Lendl Simmons broke more than a billion Indian hearts to send the West Indies through.
The West Indies were reeling late in their chase in the final as England seemed to have done enough, despite a sub-par score of 155. Enter Carlos Brathwaite – a relative unknown – who was left facing the final over from Ben Stokes. Nineteen needed off six balls. Six, six, six, six. Game over! The swashbuckling end left Stokes in tears and prompted West Indies legend Ian Bishop to scream on television: “Carlos Brathwaite, remember the name!”
2021: Pakistan tamed by Australia, again
Host: United Arab Emirates and Oman
Teams: 16
Final: Australia vs New Zealand
Winner: Australia – by eight wickets
Player of the tournament: David Warner
The first ICC World Cup in the post-pandemic era was moved to the Gulf region due to COVID-19-related restrictions in the original host nation, India.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam and his deputy Mohammad Rizwan were in scintillating form in the country’s first victory against India in an ICC World Cup in 13 attempts. It was also India’s first 10-wicket loss in the T20Is.
Pakistan won all five Super 12 matches to progress to the semis, while New Zealand beat India to grab the fourth semifinal spot.
The Kiwis one-upped England in the first semifinal thanks to Daryl Mitchell’s 47-ball 72.
In the other semifinal, Rizwan had seemingly led Pakistan to a competitive score, and Shadab Khan’s leg spin had Australia on the ropes, but some poor fielding, combined with destructive hitting by Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade, took the Aussies through.
Kane Williamson’s 48-ball 85 helped New Zealand set a target of 173 in the final, only for Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh to blow it away with seven balls to spare.
2022: Stokes flips the script in Australia
Host: Australia
Teams: 16
Final: England vs Pakistan
Winner: England – by five wickets
Player of the tournament: Sam Curran
Namibia beat Sri Lanka in the first group match to produce one of the tournament’s biggest shocks. The second one came the next day, when Scotland beat two-time champions West Indies, who also lost to Ireland and were removed in the first round.
Hosts and holders Australia were effectively washed out of the Super 12s by the weather. India did set things right by beating Pakistan in an epic chase, led by who else but Kohli, leaving the Pakistanis to scrape through to the semis by beating a gutsy Zimbabwe.
Pakistan romped to a seven-wicket win against New Zealand in the semifinal to draw comparisons with their triumphant run at the 1992 World Cup.
The next logical step would be to meet England in the final, and the 2010 champions duly obliged by blowing away India. Returning prodigal son Alex Hales struck an unbeaten match-winning 56 in a 10-wicket victory.
The 1992 comparisons remained on course as Pakistan set a middling target in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground, before Haris Rauf gave them a good start with the ball. Stokes flipped the history books, however, to break Pakistani hearts and take England to their second T20 title.
2024: India’s party in the USA and West Indies
Host: USA and West Indies
Teams: 20
Final: India vs South Africa
Winner: India – by seven runs
Player of the tournament: Jasprit Bumrah
This was the year the T20 World Cup went big. Not only did the ICC, for the first time in 17 years and nine editions, expand the T20 World Cup to include 20 teams, but it also decided to take the game to the land of baseball.
New York City played host to India vs Pakistan as cricket finally came home for the South Asian diaspora in the US.
The biggest shock of the tournament, and arguably the biggest in its history, came in the first week when USA defeated Pakistan in their group-stage match. Scores were tied at the end of the second innings, and the host nation recorded one for the history books when they beat the South Asian giants in the Super Over.
Afghanistan were the other big story, as they finally beat Australia and qualified for the semifinals of the World Cup, sparking wild celebrations back home.
India, whose biggest stars were on their way out of the T20 format, remained undefeated and broke South African hearts by pulling off a stunning comeback win in the final. And so, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli walked away as champions.
