England will play almost half their Test matches over the next four year cycle against just two teams - India and Australia.
The lucrative five match series against the other two members of the ‘Big Three’ form the backbone of England’s red ball cricket with 20 matches against them and just 23 against the remaining nine nations.
And that familiarity continues between India and Australia who have extended their own ‘Border-Gavaskar’ series to five Tests. There is no room for a single Test match against either Zimbabwe or Afghanistan in the new cycle and just one against Ireland next summer.
It will be more than 20 years since England last played a Test match against Zimbabwe despite employing two former Zimbawean cricketers as their head coach in that time. Afghanistan played their first Test in 2018 and are now coached by former England batter Jonathan Trott, but they are still being ignored at the ECB.
There is a little more variety to England’s white-ball schedule across the 2023-27 cycle with 48 ODIs and 51 T20s to be played outside the global events. And the events do come along with consistent regularity, with one scheduled each year starting with a 50 over World Cup in India in 2023.
There are two T20 World Cups in the Windies and USA in 2024, and then in India and Sri Lanka in 2026 with a Champions Trophy sandwiched in between in Pakistan in 2025.
As busy as the calendar looks for all nations, there are some obvious gaps throughout with most teams leaving a lengthy window for the Indian Premier League to take place without disruption.
The ECB have ensured there is a three week window in August every summer for The Hundred to breathe and that will be most apparent next year when the Ashes will be done and dusted by the end of July.
Test skipper Ben Stokes said: “I’ve seen something about that. Ashes is Ashes, you get the following regardless of when that is so I don’t think I’m too bothered by that.”
