January 2027 international cricket calendar day-by-day overview

January 2027 is the most-fixture-dense month on the international cricket calendar. The Big Bash League finals weekend, the SA20 Season 6 climax, the start of the Women's Ashes in Australia (the first long-format Women's Ashes Test since 2025), and three concurrent bilateral series running across four continents fill the month. Broadcasters face their busiest schedule of the year. Players face their highest workload demand of any month in the 2027 cycle.

First week: BBL semis and bilateral build-up

The opening week of January 2027 is dominated by the Big Bash League knockout stage. The BBL 16 finals series schedule (subject to Cricket Australia confirmation): the qualifier on 4 January at the higher-seeded venue, the eliminator on 5 January at the third-seeded venue, the qualifier 2 on 7 January at the venue of the loser of the qualifier, and the final on 10 January at the higher-seeded venue. Concurrent fixtures: India host New Zealand for a five-match T20I series at home (Chennai 3 January, Mumbai 5 January, Hyderabad 7 January, Lucknow 9 January, Bengaluru 11 January). The Bangladesh Premier League runs through mid-January as well, with finals on the 25th. Watch our BBL 16 finals preview for the wider context.

Second week: Women's Ashes opener and bilateral overlap

The Women's Ashes 2026-27 series in Australia opens with the one-off Test at the WACA Ground in Perth on 13-17 January 2027. England Women, captained by Heather Knight (returning from hamstring injury), face Australia Women under Alyssa Healy. The Test is the centrepiece of the multi-format Ashes (one Test, three ODIs, three T20Is, points awarded across format). Concurrent fixtures: Australia men's tour of Bangladesh (three ODIs, two T20Is at Mirpur 12, 14, 16 January and Chattogram 18, 19 January). The Bangladesh tour fixture clash with the Women's Ashes opener is a recognised broadcaster overlap. See our Women's Ashes 2026-27 preview for the wider context.

Third week: SA20 final and the IPL pre-camp window

The SA20 Season 6 final is scheduled for 24 January 2027 at the Wanderers in Johannesburg (subject to playoff seeding adjustments). The final caps off the December-January window for South African cricket, with the Wanderers's straight boundaries set up for the year's biggest T20 hitting display. Concurrent fixtures: the IPL pre-camp window for Indian and overseas players opens 22 January, with most IPL franchises requiring contracted players to report to franchise camps from this date. The overseas-player overlap with SA20 finals weekend creates a contractual question: SA20 finalists who are also IPL contracted are held by SA20 release for two extra days, and IPL franchise camps accommodate the delay. The Pakistan Super League also opens its season on 26 January.

Fourth week: PSL openers and the Test transition

The Pakistan Super League 2027 season opens 26 January with the marquee fixture at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The PSL window runs through February 25, anchoring the early part of the Pakistan calendar. Concurrent fixtures in week four: Sri Lanka host Afghanistan for a two-match ODI series at Pallekele and Hambantota. New Zealand finish their India tour with the fifth and final T20I at Bengaluru on 11 January, then transit home for a Test series against Pakistan (which opens 4 February at Karachi). The transition from limited-overs back to Test cricket at the end of January is the workload-management challenge for the New Zealand squad. Watch our New Zealand Test squad analysis for the wider arc.

Workload, broadcaster overlap, and what to watch

January 2027 sees roughly 65 fixtures across men's and women's international and franchise cricket. The workload-management calls dominate the player-availability discussions: India's senior players in the BBL window (no overlap, but tour preparation conflict), England Women's senior Test players (returning from injury for the Ashes opener), the SA20-IPL overlap players. The broadcaster overlap is severe: Star, Disney, Sky, Sony, Channel 7, SuperSport and the BPL broadcaster all have premium fixtures within the same 10-day window. The biggest single fixture by broadcast value is the Women's Ashes opening Test (WACA, 13 January), which Sky pays a premium for and Channel 7 broadcasts free-to-air in Australia. For more context, see our Heather Knight injury comeback and the Alyssa Healy captaincy profile.