India to play South Africa and West Indies in World T20 warm-ups

Former holders, India are scheduled to play two warm-up games prior to the commencement of the main competition. India will play champions of the World T20, 2012 West Indies in Kolkata on March 10 and will face South Africa on March 13 in Mumbai. Both these matches will help the team settle down and get their combinations going before they kick off their World T20, 2016 campaign against Bangladesh on March 15.

Indians find themselves placed in a highly competitive Group 2 which also consists of New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia and a qualifier which is yet to be decided. They are currently ranked as low as 8th in the ICC team rankings for T20Is after a poor run of form in the shortest format of the game of late. They would like to make amends after finishing as runners-up in the last edition of the tournament losing to Sri Lanka in the finals.

The tournament begins on March 8 and is going to be held in India for the first time. This is going to be the sixth edition of the prestigious competition. Interestingly all the previous editions were won by different nations and never has a host nation lifted the trophy before. This would be thus India’s golden opportunity to repeat the heroics of 2011.

New Delhi and Mumbai are to host the semi-finals to be held on March 30 and 31 respectively while Kolkata has earned the privilege to host the finale scheduled for April 3.

What is the schedule of the World T20 2016? – ICC announces schedule for the ICC World T20 2016