Zimbabwe will face India, Australia and Pakistan on home soil at the 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup after being drawn alongside three of the tournament’s most prominent cricketing nations in a Group A that also includes Afghanistan and one qualifier. The schedule, released by the International Cricket Council on Thursday, gives Zimbabwe five Group A matches between 9 and 24 October, all of them in Zimbabwe, creating a home campaign that will take the country’s return to the World Cup stage across Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.
Zimbabwe will begin against Qualifier A at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on 9 October before remaining in the city for a meeting with Afghanistan two days later. The tournament then moves to Harare, where Zimbabwe will face Australia on 15 October and Pakistan on 19 October at Harare Sports Club. The final group match could provide the most visually striking occasion of the campaign. Zimbabwe will meet India on 24 October at the new Mosi oa Tunya International Cricket Stadium in Victoria Falls, in what will be the first Cricket World Cup match staged at the venue.
For Zimbabwe, the fixture list provides a rare opportunity to host some of the biggest names in world cricket across three of the country’s most important cricket centres. India, Australia and Pakistan bring substantial global audiences and established World Cup histories to a tournament that is returning to Africa for the first time since 2003, when South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya jointly hosted the competition.
The 2027 edition will again have Zimbabwe and South Africa as co hosts, with Namibia joining them for its first senior Men’s Cricket World Cup as a host. The tournament will feature 14 teams, 57 matches and 12 venues across the three countries.
The competition will also look markedly different from the traditional World Cup format. The tournament opens in Windhoek on 2 October with a three team Super Series involving the three lowest placed teams from the preceding qualifying competition. They will play each other once, with the winner taking the final place in the main Group Stage.
The 12 teams already through to the Group Stage will be divided into two groups of six. Zimbabwe is in Group A with India, Australia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Qualifier A, while Group B contains South Africa, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Qualifier B. Each team will play five matches in the Group Stage. The top three teams from each group will advance to the Super 7 phase, joined by the better performing fourth placed team. The seven remaining sides will then play six further matches each, with the top four advancing to the semi finals.
That means the tournament will not simply move directly from a group phase into the knockout rounds. Instead, the new structure is designed to extend the competition between the leading teams before the semi finals. The first semi final is scheduled for Cape Town on 17 November, with the second in Tshwane the following day. The final will be played at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium on 21 November, with a reserve day on 22 November.
For Zimbabwe, however, the immediate focus will be on October. The opening match against the eventual Qualifier A gives the hosts a potentially significant start before Afghanistan arrive in Bulawayo two days later. Australia then provide the opposition in Harare on 15 October, followed four days later by Pakistan. The group campaign concludes in Victoria Falls against India, giving Zimbabwe a final fixture at one of the tournament’s newest venues and one of the country’s most internationally recognised destinations.
The distribution of Zimbabwe’s matches also places the World Cup beyond the traditional cricketing centres of Harare and Bulawayo. Victoria Falls will become part of the global cricket calendar for the first time, combining an international sporting event with one of Southern Africa’s major tourism destinations.
The ICC previously confirmed Harare Sports Club, Queens Sports Club and the Mosi oa Tunya International Cricket Stadium as Zimbabwe’s three World Cup venues. The tournament itself begins with India facing defending champions Australia in Cape Town on 7 October, before the group stage spreads across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The India Australia meeting will be a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final, while the group draw also places India and Pakistan together, ensuring that one of cricket’s most watched rivalries will be played in Johannesburg on 10 October. Zimbabwe’s own schedule offers a different kind of attraction: five matches, three cities and four major opponents before the group stage closes. For a country preparing to host the world’s premier 50 over tournament for the second time, the fixture list turns the World Cup from a national hosting project into a month long home cricket programme. The countdown to that programme begins on 2 October 2027 in Windhoek and ends 50 days later in Johannesburg. For Zimbabwe, it will begin in Bulawayo and end in Victoria Falls, with Australia and Pakistan visiting Harare in between and India waiting at the foot of one of the country’s most famous landmarks.
