The 2020 international cricket season took place from May to September 2020. 15 Test matches, 49 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 40 Twenty20 International (T20Is) were scheduled to be played during this period, as well as 8 Women's One Day Internationals (WODIs) and 9 Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is). Additionally, a number of other T20I/WT20I matches were also scheduled to be played in minor series involving associate nations. The season started with Australia leading the Test cricket rankings, England leading the ODI rankings and Australia leading the Twenty20 rankings.
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact on international cricket fixtures. Bangladesh's matches against Ireland were postponed on 21 March 2020. On 24 March 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that all ICC qualifying events scheduled to take place before 30 June 2020 had been postponed. On 9 April 2020, Australia's tour to Bangladesh was postponed. On 20 April 2020, South Africa's tour to Sri Lanka was also postponed. On 22 April 2020, the Dutch government announced that it had banned all events in the country, both sports and cultural, until 1 September 2020. Two days later, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that no professional cricket would be played in England before 1 July 2020, with tours by the West Indies and India's women both being postponed. On 12 May 2020, the ICC confirmed that the 2020 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier, scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka, had also been postponed. The ICC announced that the qualifier had been moved back to 2021. Two days later, Cricket Scotland and Cricket Ireland confirmed the cancellation of summer fixtures, including New Zealand's tour against both sides and Pakistan's visit to Ireland.
June and July saw further disruption to international cricket due to the pandemic. The ICC confirmed that the Scotland Tri-Nation Series and the Uganda Cricket World Cup Challenge League B tournament had both been postponed. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that it had called off their tours to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Scotland's one-off T20I match against Australia was cancelled, New Zealand's tour to Bangladesh to play two Test matches was postponed, and Bangladesh's tour to Sri Lanka to play three Test matches were all postponed. The latter was later rescheduled to be played in October 2020. On 30 June, Cricket Australia confirmed that their planned home series against Zimbabwe had also been postponed due to the virus. On 8 August 2020, Afghanistan's planned tour to Zimbabwe for five T20I matches was called off. Also in August 2020, the Netherlands tour to Zimbabwe was postponed, and India's tour to South Africa was cancelled due to a clash with the rescheduled 2020 Indian Premier League. Finally, the last scheduled series to be cancelled was the South Africa women's tour to England, which was due to take place in September 2020.
In June 2020, the ICC made several interim changes to the Playing Conditions due to the pandemic. A substitute could be used for any player showing symptoms of COVID-19, but only in a Test match. Players were banned from using saliva to shine the ball, with five penalty runs being awarded to the opposition for repeated transgressions. The requirement to use neutral match officials was temporarily lifted, along with an increase to the number of DRS reviews a team can use, due to having less experienced umpires in a match.
International men's cricket started with the first Test between England and the West Indies on 8 July 2020, with the West Indies winning by four wickets. New Zealand's tour of the West Indies, also scheduled to start on 8 July 2020, was postponed after it clashed with the rescheduling of the West Indies tour of England. South Africa's tour of the West Indies was also postponed due to the rescheduling of the England-West Indies series. Ireland's tour of England, originally scheduled in September, was brought forward to 30 July 2020, after the ECB gave the go ahead for the series. The fixture was also the first match in the 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League tournament, with England beating Ireland by six wickets. The ICC began the use of technology to monitor front-foot no-balls for all matches in the World Cup Super League. The ICC also started to trial the technology for the first time in a Test match, during Pakistan's Test series against England. Australia's tour to England, originally scheduled to take place in July, was moved back to September, following the rearranged series between England and Ireland. The only women's international cricket to take place was a five-match WT20I series between England and the West Indies. England Women won all of the matches, the first time they had won a bilateral series 5–0.
Season overview Men's international tours Start date Home team Away team Results [Matches] Test ODI T20I — — — — — — — — — — — — The tour was initially cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was later rescheduled. 2–1 — — — — — — — 2–1 — — — — — 1–0 — 1–1 — — — — — — — — — The tour was originally scheduled to take place in July, but was rescheduled to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. — 1–2 2–1 — — Men's international tournaments Start date Tournament Winners 2020 Papua New Guinea Tri-Nation Series style="text-align:left" 2020 Netherlands Quadrangular Series style="text-align:left" 2020 Scotland Tri-Nation Series style="text-align:left" The List A series was scheduled to take place, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 Uganda Cricket World Cup Challenge League B style="text-align:left"
Women's international tours Start date Home team Away team Results [Matches] WTest WODI WT20I — — — — 5–0
Rankings
The following were the rankings at the beginning of the season.
ICC Men's Test Team Rankings 1 May 2020 Rank Team Matches Points Rating 1 26 3,028 116 2 21 2,406 115 3 27 3,085 114 4 33 3,466 105 5 27 2,454 91 6 23 2,076 90 7 16 1,372 86 8 18 1,422 79 9 3 170 57 10 17 939 55 11 8 144 18 12 0 0 0
ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings 1 May 2020 Rank Team Matches Points Rating 1 38 4,820 127 2 49 5,819 119 3 32 3,716 116 4 31 3,345 108 5 33 3,518 107 6 32 3,254 102 7 34 2,989 88 8 39 3,297 85 9 43 3,285 76 10 28 1,549 55 11 21 1,039 49 12 5 222 44 13 12 479 40 14 24 935 39 15 16 419 26 16 9 161 18Only the top 16 teams are shown
ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings 1 May 2020 Rank Team Matches Points Rating 1 19 5,285 278 2 17 4,564 268 3 35 9,319 266 4 21 5,470 260 5 17 4,380 258 6 23 5,565 242 7 23 5,293 230 8 20 4,583 229 9 24 5,499 229 10 17 3,882 228 11 18 3,442 191 12 29 5,513 190 13 23 4,288 186 14 17 3,096 182 15 23 4,148 180 16 21 3,769 179Only the top 16 teams are shown
ICC Women's ODI Rankings 1 May 2020 Rank Team Matches Points Rating 1 26 3,945 152 2 30 3,747 125 3 29 3,568 123 4 26 2,533 110 5 36 3,626 101 6 24 1,979 82 7 25 1,835 73 8 22 1,208 55 9 10 542 54 10 6 110 18
ICC Women's T20I Rankings 1 May 2020 Rank Team Matches Points Rating 1 36 10,471 291 2 33 9,175 278 3 26 7,046 271 4 43 11,404 265 5 32 7,881 246 6 30 7,371 246 7 34 7,795 229 8 26 5,235 201 9 33 6,344 192 10 22 3,622 165 11 44 7,033 160 12 20 3,153 158 13 19 2,759 145 14 20 2,576 129 15 23 2,894 126 16 19 2,326 122Only the top 16 teams are shown
On-going tournaments The following were the rankings at the beginning of the season.
2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship Rank Team Series Points 1 4 360 2 3 296 3 3 180 4 2 146 5 3 140 6 2 80 7 2 24 8 1 0 9 2 0Full Table
2017–20 ICC Women's Championship Rank Team Matches Points 1 18 34 2 21 29 3 18 22 4 18 20 5 18 16 6 18 14 7 21 13 8 18 2Full Table
2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 Rank Team Matches Points 1 10 16 2 12 12 3 8 9 4 7 8 5 7 7 6 4 4 7 8 0Full Table
2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League League A Rank Team Matches Points 1 5 8 2 5 8 3 5 6 4 5 4 5 5 2 6 5 2Full Table
2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League League B Rank Team Matches Points 1 5 10 2 5 7 3 5 5 4 5 4 5 5 3 6 5 1Full Table
May Bangladesh in Ireland and England The tour was postponed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later rescheduled to take place in May 2022. 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – ODI series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result 1st ODI 14 May Stormont, Belfast 2nd ODI 16 May Stormont, Belfast 3rd ODI 19 May Stormont, Belfast T20I series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result [1st T20I] 22 May The Oval, London [2nd T20I] 24 May County Ground, Chelmsford [3rd T20I] 27 May County Ground, Bristol [4th T20I] 29 May Edgbaston, Birmingham
June 2020 Papua New Guinea Tri-Nation Series
The ODI series was postponed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 – Tri-series No. Date Team 1 Captain 1 Team 2 Captain 2 Venue Result [1st ODI] 9 June Amini Park, Port Moresby [2nd ODI] 10 June Amini Park, Port Moresby [3rd ODI] 12 June Amini Park, Port Moresby [4th ODI] 13 June Amini Park, Port Moresby [5th ODI] 15 June Amini Park, Port Moresby [6th ODI] 16 June Amini Park, Port Moresby
New Zealand in Scotland The tour was postponed in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only T20I No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result Only T20I 10 June The Grange Club, Edinburgh Only ODI No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result Only ODI 12 June The Grange Club, Edinburgh
Australia in Bangladesh
The tour was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship – Test series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result 1st Test 11–15 June Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong 2nd Test 19–23 June Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka
New Zealand in the Netherlands
The match was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only T20I No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result Only T20I 15 June Hazelaarweg Stadion, Rotterdam
2020 Netherlands Quadrangular Series
The series was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Zealand in Ireland The tour was postponed in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. T20I series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result 1st T20I 19 June Bready Cricket Club Ground, Magheramason 2nd T20I 21 June Bready Cricket Club Ground, Magheramason 3rd T20I 23 June Bready Cricket Club Ground, Magheramason 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – ODI series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result 1st ODI 27 June Stormont, Belfast 2nd ODI 30 June Stormont, Belfast 3rd ODI 2 July Stormont, Belfast
India women in England The tour was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. WT20I series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result [1st WT20I] 25 June County Ground, Taunton [2nd WT20I] 27 June Bristol County Ground, Bristol WODI series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result [1st WODI] 1 July New Road, Worcester [2nd WODI] 4 July County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford [3rd WODI] 6 July St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury [4th WODI] 9 July County Cricket Ground, Hove
South Africa in Sri Lanka The tour was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was rescheduled in July 2021, to take place in September 2021. 2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – ODI series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result [1st ODI] [2nd ODI] [3rd ODI] T20I series No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result [1st T20I] [2nd T20I] [3rd T20I]
Australia in Scotland
The match was cancelled in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only T20I No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result Only T20I 29 June The Grange Club, Edinburgh
July Pakistan in the Netherlands The tour was postponed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.