Italy announce squad for maiden T20 World Cup campaign

Italy's first appearance at a World Cup will be at the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, where Wayne Madsen will serve as captain. JJ Smuts, a former South African international, is one of the 15 players in the team, as are two brothers, Harry Manenti and Benjamin Manenti, and Anthony Mosca and Justin Mosca. Joe Burns, a former Australian international, had been Italy's captain during their qualification campaign, but he was kicked out of the team late last year. They got there by placing second in the Europe Regional Qualifier in July of last year, behind the Netherlands. Head coach John Davison and assistant coaches Dougie Brown and Kevin O'Brien make up Italy's coaching staff. At the 2026 T20 World Cup, Italy is in Group C with Bangladesh, England, Nepal, and West Indies. They play their first game on February 9 against Bangladesh in Kolkata, then travel to Mumbai to play Nepal on February 12 before returning to Kolkata on February 16 to play England and West Indies on February 19. The T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India in 2026 starts on February 7 and runs through March 8. In the first round of the tournament, 20 teams are divided into four groups of five, and the top two teams from each group advance to the Super Eight stage. The remaining two of the eight teams advance to the semi-finals after being split into two groups of four in that round. Italy squad for T20 World Cup Zain Ali, Marcus Campopiano (wk), Ali Hasan, Crishan Kalugamage, Wayne Madsen (c), Harry Manenti, Gian Piero Meade, Anthony Mosca, Justin Mosca, Syed Naqvi, Benjamin Manenti, Jaspreet Singh, JJ Smuts, Grant Stewart, Thomas Draca