The ICC have reportedly confirmed that India will play in the semi-final most beneficial to their home broadcasting audience, but in doing so, will not have a reserve day up their sleeve if the match is impacted by rain.
According to ESPN CricInfo, India have been locked in to play the second semi-final of the tournament, to be held in Guyana on June 27.
This is because the morning start time - at 10:30am - is a good TV time for the Indian audience at 8pm local time. The other semi-final, to be played the day before, kicks off at 8:30pm local time, which translates to 6am in India.
Because of the dates of the matches though, only the first semi-final - to be played in Trinidad - will have a reserve day in the event rain prevents a conclusion. The second semi-final, which features India, only has a one-day break between the match and final, to be held in Barbados on June 29.
That means there is no time for a reserve day, and if there is a washout, the higher-ranked team will proceed directly to the final.
In a bid to combat that, the report suggests the ICC have allowed an extra hour of make-up time for the second semi-final, with 250 minutes available before any overs would be reduced.
The first semi-final has 190 minutes of make up time, meaning no overs would be lost untill 11:40pm local time. That means that, in the worst case scenario, the game could well finish at 3am local time, with the winning team then having just two days off before fronting up for a 10am start in the final.
The newest details around the semi-final follow the controversy of a seemingly staged group draw which have India and Pakistan, as well as Australia and England, in the same groups, while the second stage of the tournament will have teams seeded based on pre-tournament rankings, rather than the rankings of the matches they played throughout the initial group stage.
The T20 World Cup - held in the West Indies and the United States of America - gets underway on June 1 with the United States of America to play Canada in Texas.
11 of the 12 Test playing nations (Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ireland and Afghanistan) will be joined by qualifiers Canada, the United States of America, Namibia, Scotland, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Nepal and the Netherlands at the tournament.
