Men's T20 World Cup 2021 groups announced

England find out their fate ahead of the rescheduled tournament held in the United Arab Emirates from October 17 to November 14

England have been drawn alongside defending champions West Indies and old enemy Australia in the Super 12 phase of the rescheduled men's T20 World Cup in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Group One also includes South Africa, who have never previously won the competition.

India and Pakistan are guaranteed to meet for the first time in any format for over two years after being drawn together in Group Two.

They will be joined by New Zealand and Afghanistan.

Prior to the Super 12 stage, eight sides will battle it out for the four remaining berths in the main tournament.

Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia will battle it out in Group A.

Group B is comprised of Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and tournament co-hosts Oman.

The top two from each pool will progress

The tournament is scheduled to run from October 17 to November 14 but the ICC are yet to announce the full tournament schedule.

ICC acting chief executive Geoff Allardice said: "We are delighted to announce the groups for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. There are some great matchups offered by the groups and it starts to bring the event to life for our fans as our first multi-team event since the onset of the global pandemic draws closer. 

"Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, we selected the cutoff date as close as possible to the event to ensure we were able to include the maximum amount of cricket in the rankings which determine the groups.

"There is no doubt we will witness some highly competitive cricket when the event gets underway in just three months."

Last year's tournament in Australia was postponed and delayed until 2022 due to Covid-19, with India having been intended to host the next tournament.

But the impact of the virus in India saw the event moved to Oman and UAE.