The 2026 T20 World Cup will see Italy as one of the 20 participating teams after the Azzurri sealed their place in the tournament on Friday (July 11) despite a nine-wicket defeat in the final game of the European Leg of the qualification at The Hague.

Italy finished second in their group and confirmed that and are one of two teams to qualify after Scotland missed out following shock defeats to the Italians as well as Jersey. Jersey also narrowly missed out on a spot in next year's tournament, which will take place in India and Sri Lanka.

The 10th editon of the Men's T20 World Cup, set to be jointly hosted by the Asian countries will mark the first time ever that Italy will take part in any Cricket Level of any format, gender, or level.

In the 2024 tournament's regional finals of the T20 World Cup qualification. Italy finished third in the table and narrowly missed out on qualification. It is worth noting that the qualification format of the tournament saw a change in 2024 when the tournament was expanded to a 20-team event, as it instead of qualifications from a final tournament, teams qualified through their continental qualifiers.

The Italians are led by Joe Burns, who used to play for Australia. Burns started playing for Italy last year. He played a total of 23 Test matches and six ODIs for the Australians.

Italy are the 15th side to qualify for the T20 World Cup next year with only five spots remaining. Alongside hosts Sri Lanka and India; Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, United States of America, and the West Indies qualified after reaching the Super 8 in the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup while New Zealand, Pakistan, and Ireland made it through the rankings.

Meanwhile, Canada qualified from the American qualifiers while the Netherlands and Italy made it through from Europe. Two teams will qualify from Africa, while three spots will come from Asia. Those qualifications are scheuled in September and October this year.