MELBOURNE: Cricket Australia Wednesday unveiled CA’s itinerary for the 2021-22 international season, with the men’s and women’s Ashes series being the highlight.
In addition to the Ashes series, the Australian men’s team will host Afghanistan for a Test for the first time before finishing with nine Dettol ODI and T20 matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, while the Australian women’s team will host India at the start of the summer.
Public tickets to the 2021-22 summer of cricket will be available in mid-June.
Men’s Internationals
The Australian men’s Test team will face its oldest and newest rivals this summer as part of a six-Test program featuring England and Afghanistan.
Now in its 145th year, Australia-England Test matches continue to captivate fans around the world, never moreso than in 2019 when the Australian men’s team retained the Ashes on English soil for the first time in 18 years.
That draw was the sixth between the two nations, while Australia lead the overall win tally 33 to 32.
The Australian men’s team will begin its Vodafone Ashes Series defence at the Gabba from December 8-12 ahead of a day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval from December 16-20. The traditional Boxing Day and New Years’ Tests will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (December 26-30) and Sydney Cricket Ground (January 5-9) respectively, with the final Test scheduled for Perth’s Optus Stadium (January 14-18).
Preceding the Ashes will be a historic first Test match against the Afghanistan men’s team at Blundstone Arena on November 27.
The conclusion of the men’s Test program will usher in the arrival of the New Zealand and Sri Lankan white ball squads, who will play a combined three Dettol ODIs and six Dettol T20Is against Australia as teams finalise their preparation for the coveted ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, scheduled to begin in October, 2022.
The Black Caps will take on Australia in three Dettol ODIs at Perth Stadium (January 30), Blundstone Arena and the SCG (February 2 and 5) for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy followed by one T20I at Manuka Oval (February 8) in the latest instalment of the trans-Tasman rivalry.
Sri Lanka, the 2014 T20 World Cup champions, will round out the men’s international summer with five Dettol T20Is against Australia at the SCG (February 11), The Gabba (February 13), Metricon Stadium (February 15), Adelaide Oval (February 18) and the MCG (February 20).
New Zealand have replaced South Africa in the ICC Men’s international tour program. The Proteas were originally slated to play white ball matches in Australia this summer as per the ICC Future Tours Program, however due to the significant disruption to the cricket calendar caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa’s home summer has been extended and thus ruled out the possibility of an Australian tour at this time.
Women’s Internationals
The international summer begins with a series against India, the final venues and dates of which are still being finalised with the BCCI.
The women’s international season breaks for the WBBL before returning for what will be an enthralling Commonwealth Bank Women’s Ashes series, to be contested once again across the three formats of the game.
Manuka Oval will host the standalone Ashes Test from January 27-30 ahead of the white ball matches. The three Commonwealth Bank T20Is between Australia and England will be played at North Sydney Oval (February 4 and 6) and Adelaide Oval (February 10), with the series concluding with a three-match ODI series at Adelaide Oval (February 13) and the Junction Oval (February 16 and 19).
At the conclusion of the series, the Australians will depart for New Zealand to take part in the 2022 ICC World Cup in a year that will also see them represent the nation at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
CA has considered quarantine periods for all international series into its 2021-22 fixture in line with current guidelines. CA continues to work closely with relevant Federal and State Government agencies and will provide updates on international quarantine, domestic biosecurity and crowd measures in due course.
