Rivalries with England, Australia crowd India's schedule for 2023-27 FTP
Test and limited-overs assignments against Australia and England crowd most of India's schedule over the next four years.
Expanded Test series against England and Australia, with multiple limited-overs series lined-up home and away, crowd most of India's schedule for the new Future Tours Programme (FTP) announced by the ICC on Wednesday (August 17) for men's international cricket for 2023-27.
India will be playing five-match Test series against both England and Australia in the period beyond March 2023, when they will be hosting the Aussies in the traditional four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the final time.
The first of the two five-match Test rubbers scheduled in this period between the two countries will be played in Australia in 2024-25 December-January, before India host a reciprocal tour against their arch-rivals in February-March 2027
After cutting off one Test on their previous trip to India back in 2021, England resume the Pataudi Trophy as a five-match affair on Indian shores in January-February 2024. When India visit England for their reciprocal tour from July 2025, they also play a full-fledged five-Test series.
Apart from these Test assignments, India have a number of limited-overs arrangement scheduled against their 'Big 3' rivals over the next four years.
Australia have a three-match ODI series scheduled alongside their BGT trip early next year. They return to Indian shores in September-October 2023 for three ODIs and five T20Is and host India for the same in a similar window two years later.
England, too, will contest standalone white-ball series against India for three ODIs and five T20Is. India will host them for one in January 2025 and travel for one in July 2026.
Who else India play in FTP 2023-27?
With series against Australia and England crowding their calendar, there has been a drastic dip in the space for other bilateral arrangements in India's calendar. The team play 44 Tests, 63 ODIs and 76 T20Is from mid-August 2022 till February 2027, but only 20 of those Tests, apart from 48 ODIs and 56 T20Is are not against their fellow Big 3 rivals.
There are no series scheduled against Pakistan for geo-political reasons. India have no international men's fixture versus Ireland and Zimbabwe either, with home and away series versus Afghanistan, including a one-off Test, in 2026 being their only engagement with a bottom-three side.
Proliferation in Test assignments with England and Australia has led to a downsizing of the India-South Africa Test match rivalry, which will be played for only two-match series in South Africa in December 2023 and in India in November 2025, alongside limited-overs matches.
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India have away Test series scheduled against Bangladesh and West Indies in December 2022 and July 2023 and Sri Lanka and New Zealand in August and November 2026. Each of these are two-match affairs, part of the World Test Championship (WTC) and will be accompanied by host of limited-overs matches.
India's only Test series of more than two matches outside those against Australia and England is scheduled against the Kiwis in October 2024.
Detailed FTP can be seen here.