20 teams, and every nation playing from the first round of action will highlight the new format agreed upon by the ICC for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The ICC have confirmed the tournament, which will be played in the West Indies and United States of America, will no longer feature a first round which doesn't include the top 8 teams in the world, as the tournament expands in size.
The tournament will still work in two phases, but the top eight will instead have to play for qualification through to the second round of action.
The 20 teams will be split into four groups of five teams, with all teams playing four games during the initial group stage.
This will then see the top two teams from each group move through to a second phase of the tournament, where the eight sides will be split into two groups of four to play another round robin.
This means that the teams making the semi-finals will play seven games before the knockouts, with semi-finals and a final to conclude the tournament once again.
Qualification for the tournament is already underway around the world, with more teams able to gain direct passage to the tournament.
The West Indies and USA national teams take up the first two spots as hosts, while the top four teams from each Super 12 group (Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka) gained automatic entries.
Afghanistan and Bangladesh have also gained direct entry to the tournament as a result of the rankings.
The remaining spots will see two African team, one American team, two Asian teams, one East Asia-Pacific team and two European teams qualify.
All regions are either underway in qualifying or nearly so, with the make up of qualified teams to be decided by mid-2023.
