Bilateral Cricket May-September 2026: International Calendar

The 2026 northern summer is one of the busier bilateral windows of the WTC 2025-27 cycle. England host two full tours, India and Pakistan are both away, the West Indies host a major sub-continent visitor, the Women's T20 World Cup eats most of June and early July in England, and a tier of associate-nation series fills the gaps. This calendar gathers the confirmed bilateral fixtures from May through September 2026 — Tests, ODIs and T20Is — in one place.

Where individual series have a dedicated cricjosh preview, we link to it; where one does not, the source is the ESPNcricinfo international calendar.

Note on scope. This is the bilateral calendar — full-member country v country fixtures. The IPL playoffs (May), the WTC Final at Lord's (June), the Women's T20 World Cup (June-July), Major League Cricket (June-July), The Hundred (July-August) and the Caribbean Premier League (August-September) all sit alongside but are not bilateral fixtures.

May 2026 — winding down domestic, ramping up bilateral

The first half of May is the IPL 2026 playoff window, so most bilateral activity sits in the second half of the month.

• South Africa tour of Zimbabwe. Two Tests in the WTC cycle, played at Bulawayo and Harare in the second half of May. Zimbabwe's first home WTC Tests of the cycle. (ESPNcricinfo series page)
• West Indies tour of Ireland. ODI and T20I bilateral, hosted at Malahide. Standard summer Ireland fixture window.
• Afghanistan v UAE bilateral. T20I series across late May, played at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

For Indian readers tracking the IPL knockouts, see the IPL 2026 playoffs preview hub — most senior international players are committed to franchises through to early June.

June 2026 — the marquee month

June is the busiest single month on this calendar. It anchors around three things: the WTC Final at Lord's, the start of the Women's T20 World Cup in England, and a clutch of bilateral Tests outside the WTC qualifier picture.

• WTC Final at Lord's. Not a bilateral, but the date that everything else routes around — the final is scheduled for early June. (Cricjosh's Lord's pitch history piece walks through the conditions.)
• New Zealand tour of England. Three Tests across June, all in the back half of the month. The first major bilateral fixture for England's home summer, per ESPNcricinfo's New Zealand-England series page.
• India tour of England. A long, layered tour starting in mid-June with white-ball cricket and rolling into the five-Test India v England series that begins in July. The white-ball portion includes three ODIs at Cardiff, Southampton and Lord's and five T20Is.
• West Indies v Australia. Three Tests in the Caribbean, opening at Bridgetown, with Sabina Park (Kingston) and Kensington Oval scheduled across June and into early July. Tour confirmed by Cricket West Indies earlier in 2025.
• Sri Lanka tour of Bangladesh. Two Tests and three ODIs across June at Mirpur and Chattogram.

July 2026 — Women's T20 World Cup peak, men's bilaterals rolling

The Women's T20 World Cup runs through to its final on 5 July at Lord's, so women's bilateral cricket is replaced by tournament fixtures for the first half of the month.

• India v England Test series. The men's tour rolls into the five-Test summer through July and August. The first Test starts in early July at Edgbaston, then Lord's, then Headingley, with two more in August.
• South Africa tour of West Indies. Two Tests in the WTC cycle at the back end of July, with venues split across Trinidad and Guyana.
• Australia tour of Sri Lanka. Two Tests and a five-match T20I bilateral, played across Galle and the SSC in Colombo.
• Major League Cricket 2026. Not bilateral — runs 18 June to 18 July across Grand Prairie (Texas), Oakland Coliseum and the new Knight Riders Cricket Field at the Fairplex Pomona, per the MLC official schedule.

August 2026 — England host Pakistan, India v England rolls on

August is dominated by two parallel England tours and the start of The Hundred. England host Pakistan for three Tests starting 19 August at Headingley, while the India series continues through the back end of the month.

• Pakistan tour of England. Three Tests — Headingley (19-23 August), Lord's (27-31 August) and Edgbaston (9-13 September). Cricjosh's full series preview breaks down each venue.
• India tour of England (continued). The final two Tests of the five-Test series are played in early-to-mid August at Old Trafford and the Oval.
• Bangladesh tour of Australia. Two Tests in the WTC cycle, played at Darwin and Mackay — Australia's first home Tests of the 2026-27 international summer. (Cricjosh series preview.)
• The Hundred 2026. Runs 21 July to 16 August across English county venues; not bilateral but a major scheduling pressure on player availability for the bilateral schedule.
• Afghanistan tour of Zimbabwe. ODI and T20I bilateral at Harare in mid-August.

September 2026 — the autumn tail

September runs the back end of the England Test summer and the start of the autumn bilateral block in Asia and the Caribbean.

• Pakistan v England 3rd Test. 9-13 September, Edgbaston — the final Test of England's home summer.
• South Africa tour of England. Three ODIs and three T20Is across the second half of September, completing England's white-ball commitments before the winter tour cycle begins.
• Caribbean Premier League 2026. Runs August into September across Caribbean venues.
• New Zealand tour of Pakistan. Three ODIs and five T20Is in late September, played at Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. New Zealand's first full Pakistan tour since the November 2022 series.
• Asian Games 2026 — Aichi & Nagoya. Cricket returns at the multi-sport event from 19 September to 4 October, with both India men's and women's sides defending the gold medals they won at Hangzhou 2023, per the Asian Games schedule.

What this means for fantasy and broadcast

For fantasy players who run multi-format leagues across the summer, three scheduling pressure points are worth flagging:

1. The WTC Final week (early June) locks out roughly 22 international players from any other commitments — almost all top-order or new-ball options for the two finalists.
2. MLC and the Caribbean tour overlap (mid-June to mid-July) means West Indies players signed to MLC franchises will rotate. Cricket West Indies has historically allowed franchise commitments to take priority for white-ball-only players.
3. The Hundred and the India-England Test series overlap (late July to mid-August) is the most-debated schedule clash of the summer. England Test players in Hundred franchises will sit out franchise matches; India's players are not in The Hundred.

For Pakistani readers, the September Pakistan-England Test in Birmingham overlaps with PSL off-season planning windows — but that is a 2027-cycle issue, not a 2026 one.

The verdict on the calendar

This is a packed but coherent summer. England carry the heaviest workload, with home Tests against New Zealand, India and Pakistan, plus the Women's T20 World Cup as host. India play 11 international fixtures in England across all formats. Pakistan play three Tests in England and a follow-up home series against New Zealand in September. The associate-nation circuit gets a meaningful slot in late August, particularly in Africa.

The WTC 2025-27 standings will be reordered four or five times by September. That is the headline.

FAQ

Which teams play the most Test cricket between May and September 2026?

England — with home Tests against New Zealand (3), India (5) and Pakistan (3). India play 5 in England plus the WTC Final if they qualify; Pakistan play 3 plus their September home white-ball series with New Zealand.

Is the WTC Final in this calendar window?

Yes — the WTC Final 2026 is scheduled at Lord's in early June 2026, kicking off the bilateral-heavy summer.

When is the Women's T20 World Cup 2026?

12 June to 5 July 2026, hosted in England. The final is at Lord's.

Are MLC, The Hundred and CPL bilateral series?

No — they are franchise T20 leagues, not country-vs-country bilateral cricket. They are listed here only because they pressure player availability for bilateral series in the same window.

Where can I find the full Asia summer 2026 cricket schedule?

The ESPNcricinfo international calendar has the full calendar with venues, dates and format breakdowns. Cricjosh links to it for series we have not yet previewed in long form.

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— CricJosh Editorial. May 2026.