ICC Men’s T20 WC 2026 | Match 5: England vs Nepal | Preview and Prediction

A new-look England under the leadership of Harry Brook will look to start their tournament in the right manner as they square off against Nepal in Match Number 5 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.

Here, we present our preview and predictions for the game.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 | Match 5: ENG vs NEP | 15:00 IST, February 8, 2026

England enter this tournament seeking a fresh revival of their T20 fortunes as they start this campaign under a new captain and a new-ish head coach. Harry Brook has been given the mantle to take over this England side from Jos Buttler as they look for freshness in leadership, while red-ball coach Brendon McCullum has now been elevated to all-format coach after being appointed as their ODI and T20I coach as well.

England have had a rather productive 2025 in terms of results in the shortest format of the game. They are unbeaten in their last 15 T20 Internationals, winning 11 of them and 4 of them having no result. They include impressive victories against The West Indies and Sri Lanka while putting on a good showing against South Africa and New Zealand as well.

In Jos Buttler and Phil Salt, the Three Lions have arguably one of the best opening pairs in the game going around. Buttler’s calculating aggression coupled with Salt’s belligerent bravado complement each other rather nicely at the top of the order. Bethell, Brook, and Jacks are expected to provide the ammunition in the middle overs, while the likes of Archer, Tongue, Rehan Ahmed, and Adil Rashid will look to restrict teams with their variety and skill with the ball.

It will be very interesting to see how Brook fares in his first major assignment as England’s white-ball skipper. There has been a huge show of confidence and faith in appointing him as the skipper and now it is up to him to deliver the results that come under the weight of those expectations, while also maintaining his form and reputation with the bat.

Their opponents, Nepal, have entered the tournament on the back of a successful qualifying campaign and they will look to punch above their weight in the competition with conditions that are much friendlier to them. They gave a very good account of themselves in the 2024 edition as well, almost upsetting the likes of Bangladesh and eventual finalists South Africa, but lack of experience playing in big tournaments went against them. This time around, they are well-prepared in terms of the experience and will look to upset the apple cart with a few big scalps along the way.

While Nepal are the plucky upstarts looking to make a big splash very early into the tournament, it will be very difficult to beat England with the quality and the players they have at their disposal, making them our favourites to win this contest.

Fantasy 11: Jos Buttler (wk), Phil Salt, Dipendra Singh Airee, Rohit Paudel, Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Jacob Bethell, Adil Rashid, Sandeep Lamichhane, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue.

Winners Prediction: England

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.