England women celebrate unbeaten home summer 2024

England men's and women's schedule for the 2025 summer has been announced with visits from Zimbabwe, West Indies, India, South Africa and a tour to Ireland. Here are the key takeaways from the announcement.

2025 promises to be a more action-packed international summer than 2024 has been. The men's side will kick the summer off with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, which will be the first Test between the two sides since 2003. That will be followed by a white-ball series against West Indies men, consisting of three ODIs and three T20Is, before a five-match Test series against India kicks off. The men's international summer concludes with a three-match white-ball tour of Ireland, after a white-ball series against South Africa.

The women's international summer starts with a white-ball series against the West Indies which will mirror the men's. They will then play a white-ball series against India, consisting of five T20Is and three ODIs, finishing their international summer at the end of July.

2026 Lord's bow soothes another summer without women's Test

The marquee part of the women's schedule announcement isn't for the 2025 summer at all. It's long been a point of contention that England women have never played a Test match at Lord's, and now one has been put in the schedule for 2026, when India return. Lord's hosted two Test matches this summer, and will host one next year as well as a women's ODI against India and men's ODI against South Africa. The decision not to bring the women's Test at Lord's forward a summer mean's England will go two years in a row without playing a home Test match. 

In the period since playing a Test at home, at Trent Bridge during last year's Ashes, England will have played at least three away. They played one in India last year and will play one in South Africa before a marquee Ashes Test at the MCG this winter. The decision not to host a Test in England next summer puts England behind the other leading nations in the women's game who have increased the number they play over the last two years. It also fails to build continuity from the Ashes Test. That match was marketed as a marquee moment for women's Test cricket, the first game of its type at Trent Bridge and scheduled in for five days as part of a joint Ashes-to-Ashes campaign. Instead of building on that success, the sparse scheduling has made it an isolated incident.

Women's summer promises greater challenge than 2024, but wrapped up by end of July

This year, the women's international summer was finished by the middle of July to coincide with the start of The Hundred. Next year will see the same scheduling again with England playing their last match of the summer against India on July 22. In large part, this is likely due to the anticipated start of the Women's World Cup in India in September.

Given that The Hundred window is kept free of internationals to ensure England players can participate fully in the competition, which usually runs until mid to late August, there would be little time after that for a continuation of the international summer. However, it's not out of the realms of possibility that a three match warm-up series could've been squeezed in between the end of The Hundred and the start of the World Cup.

August given almost entirely to Hundred

As stated, the August window has been kept almost completely free for The Hundred. This year, there was a slight overlap with the final Test match of England men's series against the West Indies and the start of the competition. That slight overlap looks set to continue, with the final Test of England men's series against India starting on July 31. However, that Test series will start early, on June 20, by which time England men will already have played Zimbabwe and finished their white ball series against the West Indies, and five Test matches will be condensed into just over a month.

This scheduling mirrors the way the Ashes was scheduled last year to avoid as much overlap with The Hundred as possible. However, ECB chair Richard Thompson said that that scheduling "would absolutely not happen again," in 2023. "It doesn't feel right, does it? Finishing the Test season in July means the whole season feels truncated," said Thompson at the time. "The idea behind of that [scheduling in 2023] was to give us the best possibly chance of defending the 50-over World Cup, which starts in October. The Test summer will absolutely not be squeezed like this in the future."

Regardless of Thompsons words, 2025 will be the second summer in three years with no Test cricket after the first week of August.

Five men's tours but none of them full

England men will play against five separate opposition over the summer, but will not play any of them in all formats. Zimbabwe and India will visit for red-ball action only, while South Africa and the West Indies will play both ODIs and T20Is. Ireland will play three ODIs only in September. The single-format India series follows a trend that applies to both India and Australia. In order to maximise revenue from those series', Australia and India tend to tour on alternate summers for either long Test series' or extended white-ball series. In order to facilitate these series and other opposition coming over, those series are usually now separated. 

IPL clash could mean understrength West Indies

Four of the six men's West Indies white-ball matches will be played in May, which will likely clash with the end of the IPL. With West Indies players usually able to prioritise playing in franchise leagues over international duty, it could result in a second-tier squad being selected for the series. Andre Russell, Nicholas Pooran, Kyle Mayers, Romario Shepherd and Shimron Hetmyer are just a few of the players who still appear for West Indies in internationals who featured in the IPL this year. With such a significant part of their squad committed to the IPL, it could be a tricky series for the West Indies to navigate.

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