T20 World Cup: How Teams Are Grouped For Super 8s — Pre-tournament Seedings Explained

After an engaging first round, the second round of the World Cup begins Tuesday with South Africa facing co-hosts USA at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. This round is called the Super 8 stage where eight teams who advanced from the opening round are divided into two groups.

There is still a lot of confusion surrounding how these four teams are grouped. How Australia despite finishing at the top of Group B are in the same group as India who topped Group A? The answer is pre-tournament seeding.

What is pre-tournament seeding? Why was it done? Here is everything you need to know about it.

What are the groups for Super 8?

Group 1 in Super 8 has India, Australia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh while Group 2 comprises of USA, England, West Indies and South Africa. The Super 8s will have a round robin format meaning every team in a group will play every other team once.

These groups are not based on where these teams finished in their groups but on seedings that were given to teams ahead of the tournament.

What is pre-tournament seeding?

Ahead of the tournament, two teams from each group were seeded according to the ICC T20I rankings. So, in Group A, India were A1 and Pakistan A2. In Group B, England were B1 and Australia B2. In Group C, New Zealand were C1 and West Indies C2 and in Group D, South Africa and Sri Lanka were D1 and D2 respectively.

The pre-seeded teams that could not qualify for the Super 8 were replaced by the teams that progressed. So in Group A, USA replaced Pakistan as A2, in Group C, Afghanistan took the place of New Zealand as C1 and in Group D Sri Lanka's exit meant Bangladesh became D2.

Why pre-tournament seeding?

The seedings help travelling fans to plan their journey better. Since all the Super 8 matches take place in different Caribbean islands — which are different countries — it would have been a logistical nightmare for fans to travel to these nations on such short notice.