ICC Women's T20 World Cup Warm-up Matches (Netherlands) 2026/27

The ICC Women's T20 World Cup Warm-up Matches serve as preparatory bilateral fixtures for the global cricket tournament organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). These sessions take place immediately prior to the main event, typically in June. The primary purpose of this period is to allow participating sides to test strategies and settle team line-ups before the competitive pressure of the championship begins. For the 2026 edition, these matches were hosted across England, with venues including Derby, Loughborough, and Cardiff. The schedule ran from June 6 to June 10, providing a concentrated block of cricket for the six teams involved: Netherlands Women, Scotland Women, Sri Lanka Women, South Africa Women, West Indies Women, and Pakistan Women.

Crucially, these warm-up games hold no official standing within the sport's record books. They are not classified as official Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. Consequently, the results do not count towards tournament standings, nor do they influence official head-to-head records between the nations. Each team in the 2026 squad played two such fixtures, ensuring sufficient preparation time. This format differs significantly from the main tournament, which in 2026 featured twelve teams split into two groups of six. Those teams advanced to a Super 8 stage followed by semi-finals, a structure that changed from the previous year when ten teams competed without an intermediate stage.

The global tournament itself has a longer history, having first been held in 2009 in England. While the warm-up matches are exclusive to the pre-tournament window, the championship determines the world champion through qualification based on ICC rankings and a separate Global Qualifier process. There is no formal promotion or relegation system within the World Cup itself, meaning teams must successfully qualify for each edition regardless of previous performance. Australia remains the most successful nation in the history of the competition, having secured six titles, while New Zealand claimed the most recent edition in 2024 by defeating South Africa.