🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026:M15: Eng vs WI, Mumbai 🏏

🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026: M15: England vs WI at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 11/02/26 at 7:00 PM IST🏏

England (ENG) will take on West Indies (WI)in Match No. 15 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, a Group C fixture scheduled for February 11 at the iconic Wankhede Stadiumin Mumbai.

England are coming into this contest after edging past Nepal in a nail-biting encounter that went down to the final ball. Despite the close finish, they will be keen to regroup and deliver a more dominant performance as they look to outplay West Indies and remain unbeaten in the tournament.

Meanwhile, West Indies registered an impressive victory over Scotland in their previous match. Shimron Hetmyer starred with the bat, while Romario Shepherd stole the show with a five-wicket haul. The Caribbeans will be eager to replicate that all-round performance and continue their unbeaten run in the marquee event.

In the spotlight: Adil Rashid and Gudakesh Motie

One of the main reasons for England's angst in that Nepal run-chase was the unexpectedly brutal treatment meted out on Adil Rashid. Not only did he go wicketless for the first time in 25 T20I innings, dating back to the last World Cup, he was launched at a rate of 14 runs an over, the second-most expensive T20I spell of three or more overs in his career. Nepal's ability to pick his variations was the clincher, borne no doubt of their own familiarity with the art of legspin, and given his form coming into the tournament, there's no question of Harry Brook losing any faith in Rashid's impact. As the man himself said on this site last week, "you have to have a big heart as a spinner". It's about to be tested once more.

Quality spin remains an Achilles heel for England's heavy hitters, and in Gudakesh Motie, they'll be reunited with a left-arm spinner who knows how to cramp their style. Ten of his 40 T20I wickets have come in his frequent clashes with England, including a matchwinning haul of 3 for 24 in Tarouba two years ago. He was recently left out of their tour of New Zealand after a dip in form linked to a technical flaw, but last month he reasserted his trump-card status with a matchwinning haul in a rain-reduced game against South Africa.

Gudakesh Motie sends one down in the nets on match eve•ICC via Getty Images

Team news: Overton returns, Wood on the bench

Once again, England were quick out of the blocks with their starting XI. Just the one change from that fraught opener against Nepal, with Luke Wood's left-arm seam making way from the heavier deck-hitting capabilities of Jamie Overton. He hits a long ball too, which might be useful down the order, given West Indies' own six-hitting reputation.

England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (capt), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jamie Overton, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid.

West Indies know their XI, but have chosen not to divulge it just yet. There was not much reason to change a winning formula from their tournament opener against Scotland.

West Indies (probable): 1 Brandon King, 2 Shai Hope (capt & wk), 3 Shimron Hetmyer, 4 Rovman Powell, 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Romario Shepherd, 7 Matthew Forde, 8 Jason Holder, 9 Akeal Hosain, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Gudakesh Motie.

Pitch and conditions: Dew factor in evening contest

So far, the Wankhede has not been the free-flowing run-carpet that it can sometimes be. England's ambitions were stymied by Nepal's spinners, while India encountered trouble up top against some sticky seam bowling from USA, on what has at times been a two-paced surface. Sammy, however, expects plenty of runs this time out. The 7pm start means that dew is likely to be a factor, so the team that wins the toss will probably bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• England and West Indies are closely matched over the course of their 38 previous T20I encounters.England have won 19 to West Indies' 18, with one no-result.

• However, England have won seven of their last eight completed matches, dating back to their victory in St Lucia in the 2024 T20 World Cup.

• Their records at T20 World Cups follow a similar trend. West Indies won each of their first five meetings, up to and including the 2016 final in Kolkata. England have won both since.

• Jos Buttler, who recently became England's most-capped international cricketer, needs 24 runs to reach 4,000 in T20Is.

Quotes

"Winning ugly is a great trait. And a game like [Nepal], it's obviously incredibly difficult to replicate that experience. Hopefully, when we get in that situation in the rest of the tournament, we'll be able to take that with us."

England spinner Will Jacks takes the positives from their close-fought opener.

"I remember it was our first game. I think England scored 180-something (182). We walked out and Chris Gayle said, 'they are 30 runs short'.""

Daren Sammy, West Indies' coach and tournament-winning captain in 2016, remembers that game in Mumbai.

ENG vs WI Probable Best Performers

Probable Best Batter: Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler (Photo by MB Media/Getty Images)

Jos Buttler could be the key batter in this clash. He got off to a promising start in the opening game but was unable to convert it into a substantial score. The England wicketkeeper-batter will be eager to perform at his best this time and make a significant contribution with the bat. Buttler has amassed 3,976 runs in 148 T20 matches.

Probable Best Bowler: Jason Holder

Jason Holder(Photo by Shubhajit Roy Karmakar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jason Holder could be the key bowler in this clash. He delivered an impressive spell of 3/30 against Scotland in the opening fixture and has claimed 101 wickets in T20 cricket overall. Holder’s ability to control his four overs with smart variations could prove crucial for West Indies in their bid to secure another victory.

18:00 Local Time, 12:30 GMT: Ben Stokes down on his haunches, Carlos Brathwaite roaring with arms outstretched, West Indies players flooding the field, and Ian Bishop on air delivering the immortal line - “Remember the name.” Whenever England and West Indies meet in a T20 World Cup, memories of that 2016 classic aren’t far away. A decade on, much has changed. England have since added multiple white-ball world titles to their cabinet and built a side packed with depth and flexibility. West Indies remain a dangerous T20 outfit, though the aura of their title-winning era has faded slightly. All of which brings us to this crucial Group C encounter.

Big picture: A rematch, a decade in the making

In a tournament that has so far been characterised by plucky challenges from unfancied underdogs, here's a clash of big beasts to whet the appetite. Okay, so West Indies may not be among the big hitters on a global scale any more - hell, they didn't even qualify for the ICC's last two 50-over tournaments. But in a 20-over gunfight, they've proven time and again that their particular brand of physical might is right. Not least against Wednesday's familiar foes at the Wankhede.

A clash of England and West Indies in a T20 World Cup is an inevitable opportunity to revisit one of the greatest finales of all time. Ten years ago in Kolkata, not quite to the month, Carlos Brathwaite launched Ben Stokes into the stratosphere time and time again to swipe the 2016 trophy from England's grasp, almost as the engraver was getting to work.

But if the raw aggression of that moment left England feeling robbed, they could not say that they hadn't been warned. For it was at the Wankhede, in their very first match of that same campaign, that they came a cropper in the face of an even more ferocious beating, as the mighty Chris Gayle blitzed 11 massive sixes in his 47-ball hundred.

Fittingly, those were the only two defeats of England's knowingly naïve campaign. Perhaps they came too early in their ongoing white-ball awakening for the players to possess the street-smarts required to bring down an IPL-trained mean machine. But the lessons they learned would be invaluable, especially when the 2019 World Cup reached its own clutch moments.

England still have two survivors from that campaign - Adil Rashid and Jos Buttler, whose recognition of the value of six-hitting was his single biggest takeaway from that tournament; that, for a player who trusts his ability to clear the ropes, even the steepest of chases can be broken down into a handful of big hits when the match-up is right.

But, as Sam Curran noted after his nerveless death over had saved the day against Nepal, the lessons of that tournament cut both ways as they continue to echo down the generations. "I weirdly thought of the 2016 final, when Carlos got hold of Stokesy," he told the BBC afterwards. "I was thinking, 'Well, if I execute, he's not going to hit me for six.'"

As for West Indies, Johnson Charles and Jason Holder remain from that squad of ten years ago, alongside their head coach, Daren Sammy - whose captaincy proved instrumental in drawing his players together to fight for a common cause. As he demonstrated on match eve, shooting the breeze with the media in a 15-minute address that touched every issue imaginable in West Indies cricket, his class of 2026 are unlikely to lack for motivation against these opponents.

History and precedent aside, this is a significant match-up for more basic qualification reasons. On the face of it, the jeopardy in Group C has been reduced by Bangladesh's decision to withdraw, but Nepal are clearly itching for an upset and, as Scotland showed with a comprehensive win over the likely stragglers Italy, they have embraced their unlikely opportunity with gusto.

It's an occasion that deserves to be savoured. As the weeks of uncertainty over India versus Pakistan ended up demonstrating, there's still something precious about proper historical rivalries on the grandest stages that the game can offer. England and West Indies have each won two T20 World Cup titles, tying them with India as the most successful teams in the tournament's history. Their storied pasts will inform the present on Wednesday night, as each team seeks to stride on into the future.