Ross Taylor is a big name in the cricket world, who played for New Zealand for many years and retired from international cricket some time ago. But he returned to international cricket taking a U-turn from the retirement decision. 41 -year -old Taylor is not playing for New Zealand but for Samoa country and representing this team in the T20 World Cup 2026 qualifier, but his return was not good.

Prior to the T20 World Cup 2026 qualifier, Ross Taylor played 2 matches in warm-up matches and both flopped. Hardly anyone has heard the name of Samoa country before in India, but people have started to know it by going to this team like Taylor. Although the big name of Taylor is expected to return to his heart, but it was not seen yet.

He scored just 11 runs in a warm-up match against Japan, that too in 10 balls. At the same time, his bat remained silent against Malaysia, Ross Taylor scored just 4 runs in 8 balls against this team.

Of course, Ross Taylor is a big name in the cricket world, good bowlers used to sweat in dismissing them, but at the age of 41, it seems difficult for him to return to international cricket and perform the same. Taylor is a big player, because of this, fans also hope that he will perform well in the main matches of the qualifier.

Samoa’s first match in group stage is with Oman. This match will start at 11:30 am according to India. After this, the next match of the team is against PNG (Papua New Guinea) on 9 October.

Ross Taylor’s International Career

Ross Taylor, 41, played international cricket for 16 years for New Zealand. He played 112 Tests, 236 ODIs and 102 T20 matches for New Zealand. In this, he scored 7683, 8607 and 1909 runs respectively. He scored 40 centuries (19 Tests and 21 ODIs) in international cricket.

T20 World Cup 2026 Qualified Teams: The countdown of T20 World Cup 2026 has started. India will step into the tournament as the defending champion, which defeated South Africa by 7 runs in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup. This will be the tenth edition of the T20 World Cup. Let us know that so far India, West Indies and England have won this trophy twice, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia have won the title once. Here, let’s know where the 2026 T20 World Cup will be played, when will it start and how many teams will participate in the tournament?

When and where will the 2026 T20 World Cup be played?

India and Sri Lanka are going to host the 2026 T20 World Cup. This will be the second time when India and Sri Lanka will be hosting a T20 World Cup tournament. The date of the tournament has not been revealed yet, but the World Cup matches will be played in the month of February-March next year.

How many teams will participate?

The T20 World Cup tournament will be played in the 2024 format, in which 20 teams from all over the world are going to participate. These 20 countries will be divided into four groups of five teams each. After that, the team that finishes the top-2 from each group will enter the Super-8 stage. In the Super-8 stage, two groups of four teams will be formed, in which the team living in Top-2 will qualify for the semi-finals.

Let us tell you that so far a total of 13 teams have qualified for the World Cup. India and Sri Lanka got entry into the Direct World Cup tournament as a host. Apart from them, the top-8 teams of 2024 T20 World Cup got a direct entry in the next World Cup. After him, two teams have qualified for the World Cup on the basis of rankings. At the same time, the decision of the remaining 8 teams will be on the basis of regional qualifiers.

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2026 T20 World Cup Qualified Teams List: At this time the thrill of the Indo-England Test series has started, but 8 months after that the T20 World Cup 2026 is going to start. The next year is to host the T20 World Cup to India and Sri Lanka, in which a total of 20 teams are going to participate. So far, a total of 13 teams have qualified for the World Cup, of which the newest entry is from Canada. The Canadian team has qualified for the World Cup by winning the Americas Regional Final. This will be the second time when 20 teams will be participating in the T20 World Cup.

13 teams have qualified

India and Sri Lanka, being hosts, have entered the Direct World Cup tournament. In the top-8 of the 2024 T20 World Cup, the teams who finished finished directly got entry into the 2026 World Cup. Apart from India, Australia, England, USA, Afghanistan, West Indies, Bangladesh and South Africa reached the Super-8 stage in the previous edition. After them, the next three teams in rankings will qualify for the World Cup.

The remaining 8 teams will get qualification based on regional qualifiers. Based on regional qualifiers, 2 teams from Africa, 3 teams Asia and East Asia-Pacific region, 2 teams will qualify from Europe and one team from the American sector.

Teams who have qualified so far: India, Sri Lanka, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, West Indies, United States, Ireland and Canada.

At present, 7 more teams are going to qualify for the World Cup. Currently, 2 teams will qualify from Europe, 2 teams will be able to enter the World Cup through Africa qualifier tournament. At the same time, 3 teams will qualify for the World Cup from Asia-Pacific sector. The 2024 T20 World Cup was organized by the West Indies and the USA, in which India created history by defeating South Africa.

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