2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier

The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine which teams would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finishing highest in the qualifier tournament joined Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the first group stage of the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. The tournament formed part of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier series, with the Netherlands winning the final.

In April 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) granted full international status to Twenty20 men's matches played between member sides from 1 January 2019 onwards. Therefore, all the matches in the Regional Finals and the Qualifier itself, were played as full Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). In July 2019, the ICC suspended Zimbabwe Cricket, with the team barred from taking part in ICC events, which put their participation in the tournament in doubt. The following month, with Zimbabwe banned from taking part in international cricket tournaments, the ICC named Nigeria as their replacement in the tournament.

Papua New Guinea were the first team to qualify for the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup from the tournament, after they won Group A, finishing above the Netherlands on net run rate. It was the first time that Papua New Guinea had qualified for a World Cup in any format. Ireland became the second team to qualify when they won Group B, also on net run rate. Both teams also advanced to the playoff section of the qualifier. They were joined by the Netherlands, Namibia and Scotland from Group A, and Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong from Group B.

In the first qualifier match in the playoffs, the Netherlands qualified for the T20 World Cup when they beat the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets, after the UAE only scored 80 runs in their innings. The second qualifier match saw Namibia advance to their first T20 World Cup after beating Oman by 54 runs. Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the Men's T20 World Cup. The final qualifier match saw Oman become the last team to qualify for the Men's T20 World Cup, after they narrowly beat Hong Kong by 12 runs.

Scotland beat Oman by five wickets to win the fifth-place playoff match. In the first semi-final, the Netherlands beat Ireland by 21 runs to advance to the final. They were joined in the final with Papua New Guinea, after they beat Namibia by 18 runs in the second semi-final. Ireland beat Namibia by 27 runs to win the third-place playoff. The final saw the Netherlands beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets to win the tournament. Namibia's captain, Gerhard Erasmus, was named the player of the tournament.

Teams and qualifications

Sub-regional qualification groups began on 26 February 2018 in Argentina. In the Americas group, both the Cayman Islands and Bermuda registered wins against Argentina. A total of 61 Associate Member teams out of originally scheduled 62 teams competed.Zambia were originally scheduled to compete in the Southern sub region group in the Africa Qualifier, but later withdrew. Of these teams, 25 of them progressed to the regional finals in 2019, with the top sevenThe United Arab Emirates initially qualified to the Asia Regional Final, but later automatically progressed to the qualifier tournament as the host. teams progressing to the qualifier tournament. They were joined by the top six teams from the 2015 qualifier that were outside the top ten places in the ICC T20I Championship by the cut-off date of 31 December 2018, and the tournament host.

ICC T20I Championship

Host nation, Australia, and the nine best teams (according to the ICC T20I Championship ranking of 31 December 2018) who played in the last edition of ICC Men's T20 World Cup qualified for the final tournament directly. The remaining six entrants from the last tournament competed in the Regional Qualifiers of the World Cup qualifying tournaments. Of the teams in the ICC T20I Championship ranking, initially the United Arab Emirates and Nepal could only qualify through regional competitions. However, in March 2019, the ICC announced that the UAE would host the qualifier tournament, resulting in their automatic qualification. Later the same month, the ICC released the match schedule for all the Regional Finals, with the UAE omitted from the fixture list for the Asia Regional Final. The number of teams that could qualify from the Asia Regional Final was also reduced from two to one.

The final rankings for automatic qualification as of 31 December 2018 were as follows:

Regional qualifications

62 teams were originally scheduled to compete in 12 regional qualification groups during 2018 across five regions, with 61 taking part. The top 25 teams progressed to five regional finals in 2019, with eight teams progressing to the 2019 qualifier tournament. The host nation of each sub-regional group and regional final groups are shown in bold. All the sub-regional stage matches in the European section were held in the Netherlands.

Squads

UAE squad

Ahead of the tournament, Mohammad Naveed was withdrawn from the UAE's squad, with Ahmed Raza named as captain in his place. Qadeer Ahmed and Shaiman Anwar were also dropped from the UAE's squad, with Waheed Ahmed, Darius D'Silva