India to play 38 Tests, 42 ODIs, 61 T20Is in next FTP

NEW DELHI: The Indian men’s team will be playing a whopping 141 bilateral international matches during the next five-year Future Tours & Programme (FTP) Cycle between May 2023 and April 2027, the ICC said on Wednesday.

Most sought-after team commercially, the ‘Men In Blue’ will play 38 Tests, 42 ODIs and 61 T20Is in the five-year period and the focus on shortest format is an indicator how priorities across formats will be changing. The ODI bilaterals will remain but mostly be three-match series.

India expectedly has a choc-a-bloc calendar but as usual there won’t be any bilateral cricket series with Pakistan due to obvious political reasons.

The 12 Members will play a total of 777 international matches – 173 Tests, 281 ODIs and 323 T20Is – in the 2023-2027 FTP cycle compared to the 694 in the current one.

This includes the next two cycles of the ICC Men’s World Test Championship, multiple ICC events and a host of bilateral as well as tri-series action.

As far as India’s schedule is concerned, the traditional India versus Australia Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, that used to be a four-match affair for a long time will become five-Test series.

India will be playing five-Test series against both England and Australia and also on the T20 front, there are a lot of five-match series which is on expected lines with the broadcasters demand with premium advertisement rates for short-form matches.

The marquee five-Test home series against England will be tentatively held between Jan-March in 2024.

While Australia is visiting India early next year to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in a four-Test series as a part of previous cycle, India’s next big trip Down Under is in December-January, 2024-25 when it plays Australia in a five-Test series for the first time since 1991.