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After 30 years, India and Australia to battle against each other for the five-match Test series in ICC's next Future Tours Programme (FTP).
The prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia will be played as a five-Test series between May 2023 and April 2027. It will be the first time since 1992 that India and Australia are playing series comprising five Test matches.
Australia legend and former skipper Ricky Ponting applauded the decision to make the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy a five-game series.
"I think spectators from Australia and India and probably anyone that loved the game around the world would have liked to have seen more Test matches between Australia and India, so absolutely I think it's a fantastic initiative and more importantly, I think all the players will really enjoy that as well," Ponting told host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review.
India are also scheduled to play two five-Test series against England - at home in early 2024 and away in 2025. The home series will be part of the 2023-25 WTC cycle, while the five Tests in England are part of the 2025-27 WTC cycle.
As per the draft FTP, India are scheduled to play 38 Tests, four fewer than England (42) and three fewer than Australia (41). Only two other countries have more than 30 Tests on their calendar: Bangladesh (34) and New Zealand (32).
Like the current cycle of WTC, the Ashes, as well as the England-India Test series, will be contested across five matches during the upcoming FTP.
England, Australia and India will feature in the greatest number of Test matches during the cycle, as they are set to play 22, 21 and 20 five-day games respectively.
The upcoming cycle of the FTP also features five major ICC events, starting with the Cricket World Cup next year in India.
West Indies and the USA will host the T20 World Cup in 2024, which will be followed by the return of the Champions Trophy in 2025 to be hosted by Pakistan.
India and Sri Lanka will jointly host the T20 World Cup in 2026 and the FTP cycle will be rounded off by the Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2027.
The white-ball bilateral and tri-series will have high stakes as they will count towards the respective team’s rankings, which in turn will help decide which teams will qualify for ICC events.
