India to play more T20 internationals ahead of next year's World T20
Unusually, Team India will be playing a lot of T20 internationals in the next 10 months leading up to the World T20 at home next year. The BCCI has released a schedule which says that the team will be playing a minimum of 11 T20 internationals over the next few months starting with a T20 series against Zimbabwe in July.
Apart from these 11 matches, India will also be playing in the Asia Cup next year before the World Cup in a T20 format which was announced recently.
After the Zimbabwe series, India’s next T20 assignment is against South Africa at home where they will be playing during the month of September (which has traditionally been hosting the CLT20). And then early next year, they travel to Australia to play five ODIs and three T20s before concluding it with three more T20s at home against Sri Lanka.
This has not been the norm in the previous years and especially during the previous World T20 in 2014, India had played just one T20 in the twelve months leading to the tournament.
With a total of just 53 matches since their triumph in the 2007 World T20, at least seven other teams have played more T20 international cricket than the men in blue.
| Month | Series |
| July | 2 T20s vs Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe |
| September | 3 T20s vs South Africa in India |
| January | 3 T20s vs Australia in Australia |
| February | 3 T20s vs Sri Lanka in India |
| March | Asia Cup (T20 format) in Bangladesh |