Scotland rely on ICC assurances over Sharif visa after naming T20 World Cup 2026 squad

As Scotland have earned an almost last-minute entry for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, in the absence of the Bangladesh national cricket team, the visa status is now the key matter for the team. Cricket Scotland has announced the Scottish squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, where the 34-year-old Safyaan Sharif is of Pakistani heritage, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) has reportedly given assurance for the entire Scottish squad visa, including Sharif. 

On Monday (January 26), Scotland announced their complete squad for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, which India and Sri Lanka will host from February 7 to March 8, 2026. As Scotland have replaced Bangladesh for the tournament, they are in Group C along with two-time champions England and West Indies, Nepal, and debutant Italy. In the group stage, Scotland will play all their matches in India, three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai.

Earlier, there were some doubts about the Indian visa-granting for the Pakistan-origin players, which seems to have been sorted with the ICC assurance. As Scotland are making a late entry in the tournament, the visa can create any issue. However, Cricket Scotland has a strong belief in ICC assurance, as they feel that everything will be fine and done on time, including granting the Indian visa for Safyaan Sharif.

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We are all committed working with the ICC to make that happen: Cricket Scotland chief executive

Cricket Scotland's chief executive, Trudy Lindblade, said, "We are all committed [to] working with the ICC to make that happen. The visa piece is always slightly an unknown, and it doesn't matter whether you've got three days or whether you've got 45 days.

"Certainly that's been our focus in the last 48 hours: just getting those visas done so our players are all ready to go. They're all in the middle of submitting their visas and we will be there on the ground in India as quickly as we can, so it's just a matter of time now.

"[The ICC] can only give us the assurances of the bits that they can control and, absolutely, of the bits that they control, we are working with them and obviously they're working with the BCCI and local people on the ground there to make sure that we are getting all of that support that we need.

"So, absolutely, [they have given] the assurance that they can provide of things that were in their control. There is a team working very, very hard to not just help us, but to help 19 other teams as well that are also going to a World Cup. But we are their intense focus right now."

Safyaan Sharif was born in Yorkshire

Huddersfield-born Safyaan Sharif's father is from Pakistan, and his mother is a British-Pakistani. 

Cricket Scotland has also named two travelling reserves and three non-travelling reserves for the tournament.