India has been drawn with arch-rivals Pakistan and minnows Scotland for the group stages of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup to be held in South Africa in September.

The three teams have been pooled in Group D of the tournament which will see 12 countries.

Group A has South Africa, West Indies [Images] and Bangladesh while Group B features world champions Australia, England [Images] and Zimbabwe. New Zealand [Images], Sri Lanka [Images] and Kenya form Group C.

The teams were seeded based on their rankings in Twenty20 format as of March 1, 2007.

The group stages will be followed by the Super Eights, made up of the top two teams in each group. The top four teams from the Super Eights will advance to the semi-finals, South African cricket chief Gerald Majola said on Tuesday.

Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban have been chosen as the venues for the Twenty20 World Cup.

The teams are expected to arrive approximately five-seven days before the first match. Two rounds of warm-up matches will be played on September 8 and 9.

"The launch event is planned to take place on July 26 in Johannesburg. It will set the tone for the build-up to the non-stop cricket action coming to Wanderers in Johannesburg, Newlands in Cape Town and Kingsmead in Durban", Steve Elworthy, one of the managers of Cricket South Africa, said.

"The two semi-finals will be played on September 22, while the final will be staged back at Wanderers, Johannesburg, on September 24, which is Heritage Day in South Africa," Elworthy added.