International cricket in 2021

The 2021 international cricket season took place from May 2021 to September 2021.^[1]^[2] 13 Tests, 56 One Day Internationals (ODIs), 45 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) were scheduled to be held in this season. The final of the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship took place in June at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, England, with New Zealand beating India by eight wickets.^[3] The 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship started in August 2021, with India's tour of England.^[4]

Qualification for the 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup also started, with Scotland hosting the first regional qualifier group in August.^[5] Also in women's international cricket, 18 Women's One Day International (WODI) and 23 Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) matches were scheduled to be played, along with a women's Test match between England and India.^[6] Additionally, a number of other T20I/WT20I matches were scheduled to be played in minor series involving associate nations.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continued into the 2021 international calendar. In November 2020, the planned Cricket World Cup Super League fixtures between the Netherlands and England were postponed.^[7] The series was originally scheduled to be played in May 2021, but it was moved to May 2022 due to the pandemic.^[8] In February 2021, round eight of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 tournament, scheduled to take place in Papua New Guinea, was also postponed.^[9] In June, the ninth round of the tournament, scheduled to take place in Spain, was postponed until 2022.^[10] On 22 July 2021, Cricket Ireland confirmed that their home series against Zimbabwe would be rescheduled due to quarantine requirements needed for the visiting team.^[11] Later the same day, the second ODI match between the West Indies and Australia was postponed following a positive COVID-19 case.^[12] The Cricket World Cup Challenge League B tournament originally scheduled to be played in Jersey during September, was rescheduled to take place in Hong Kong in December 2021.^[13]

In September 2021, the fifth Test match between England and India was cancelled a few hours before the scheduled start, due to COVID-19 cases in the Indian camp.^[14] The match was rescheduled to take place in July 2022, ahead of India's white-ball tour of England.^[15]

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Men's international tours
Start date	Home team	Away team	Results [Matches]
Start date	Home team	Away team	Test	ODI	T20I
19 May 2021	Netherlands	Scotland	—	1–1 [2]	—
23 May 2021	Bangladesh	Sri Lanka	—	2–1 [3]	—
2 June 2021	Netherlands	Ireland	—	2–1 [3]	—
2 June 2021	England	New Zealand	0–1 [2]	—	—
10 June 2021	West Indies	South Africa	0–2 [2]	—	2–3 [5]
23 June 2021	England	Sri Lanka	—	2–0 [3]	3–0 [3]
7 July 2021	Zimbabwe	Bangladesh	0–1 [1]	0–3 [3]	1–2 [3]
8 July 2021	England	Pakistan	—	3–0 [3]	2–1 [3]
9 July 2021	West Indies	Australia	—	1–2 [3]	4–1 [5]
11 July 2021	Ireland	South Africa	—	1–1 [3]	0–3 [3]
18 July 2021	Sri Lanka	India	—	1–2 [3]	2–1 [3]
28 July 2021	West Indies	Pakistan	1–1 [2]	—	0–1 [4]
July 2021^{[n 1]}	Sri Lanka	Afghanistan	—	[3]	[3]
3 August 2021	Bangladesh	Australia	—	—	4–1 [5]
4 August 2021^{[n 2]}	England	India	2–2 [5]	—	—
27 August 2021^{[n 3]}	Ireland	Zimbabwe	—	1–1 [3]	3–2 [5]
15 September 2021	Scotland	Zimbabwe	—	—	1–2 [3]
Men's international tournaments
Start date	Tournament				Winners
13 May 2021^{[n 4]}	2021 Papua New Guinea Tri-Nation Series				N/a
18 June 2021	ICC World Test Championship Final				New Zealand
20 July 2021^{[n 4]}	2021 Scotland Tri-Nation Series				N/a
August 2021^{[n 5]}	2021 United States Tri-Nation Series				N/a

Women's international tours
Start date	Home team	Away team	Results [Matches]
Start date	Home team	Away team	WTest	WODI	WT20I
24 May 2021	Ireland	Scotland	—	—	3–1 [4]
16 June 2021	England	India	0–0 [1]	2–1 [3]	2–1 [3]
30 June 2021	West Indies	Pakistan	—	3–2 [5]	3–0 [3]
26 July 2021	Ireland	Netherlands	—	—	2–1 [4]
27 August 2021	Zimbabwe	Thailand	—	—	1–2 [3]
31 August 2021	West Indies	South Africa	—	1–4 [5]	1–1 [3]
1 September 2021	England	New Zealand	—	4–1 [5]	2–1 [3]

ICC Men's Test Team Rankings 13 May 2021^[16]^[17]
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	India	24	2,914	121
2	New Zealand	18	2,166	120
3	England	32	3,493	109
4	Australia	17	1,844	108
5	Pakistan	24	2,247	94
6	West Indies	24	2,024	84
7	South Africa	16	1,273	80
8	Sri Lanka	27	2,095	78
9	Bangladesh	15	694	46
10	Zimbabwe	10	346	35

ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings 3 May 2021^[18]^[19]
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	New Zealand	17	2,054	121
2	Australia	25	2,945	118
3	India	29	3,344	115
4	England	27	3,100	115
5	South Africa	20	2,137	107
6	Pakistan	24	2,323	97
7	Bangladesh	24	2,157	90
8	West Indies	27	2,222	82
9	Sri Lanka	21	1,652	79
10	Afghanistan	17	1,054	62
11	Netherlands	2	99	50
12	Ireland	18	818	45
13	Zimbabwe	15	588	39
14	Oman	7	240	34
15	Scotland	5	148	30
16	Nepal	5	119	24
Only the top 16 teams are shown

ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings 3 May 2021^[20]^[21]
Rank	Team	Matches	Points	Rating
1	England	22	6,088	277
2	India	25	6,811	272
3	New Zealand	23	6,048	263
4	Pakistan	30	7,818	261
5	Australia	23	5,930	258
6	South Africa	19	4,703	248
7	Afghanistan	12	2,826	236
8	Sri Lanka	13	2,957	227
9	Bangladesh	13	2,921	225
10	West Indies	18	3,992	222
11	Zimbabwe	19	3,628	191
12	Ireland	18	3,388	188
13	Nepal	19	3,556	187
14	Scotland	11	2,035	185
15	United Arab Emirates	11	2,023	184
16	Papua New Guinea	14	2,501	179
Only the top 16 teams are shown

2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship
Rank	Team	Series	PCT
1	India	6	72.2%
2	New Zealand	5	70.0%

3	Australia	4	69.2%
4	England	6	61.4%
5	Pakistan	5.5	43.3%
6	West Indies	5	33.3%
7	South Africa	4	30.0%
8	Sri Lanka	6	27.8%
9	Bangladesh	3.5	4.8%
Full Table

2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League
League A
Rank	Team	Matches	Points
1	Canada	5	8

2	Singapore	5	8
3	Qatar	5	6
4	Denmark	5	4
5	Malaysia	5	2
6	Vanuatu	5	2
Full Table

2019–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League
League B
Rank	Team	Matches	Points
1	Uganda	5	10

2	Hong Kong	5	7
3	Italy	5	5
4	Jersey	5	4
5	Kenya	5	3
6	Bermuda	5	1
Full Table

ODI series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
ODI 4288	19 May	Pieter Seelaar	Kyle Coetzer	Hazelaarweg Stadion, Rotterdam	Netherlands by 14 runs
ODI 4289	20 May	Pieter Seelaar	Kyle Coetzer	Hazelaarweg Stadion, Rotterdam	Scotland by 6 wickets

2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 – Tri-series
No.	Date	Team 1	Captain 1	Team 2	Captain 2	Venue	Result
[ 1st ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby
[ 2nd ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby
[ 3rd ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby
[ 4th ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby
[ 5th ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby
[ 6th ODI]	May					Amini Park, Port Moresby

WT20I series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
WT20I 892	24 May	Laura Delany	Kathryn Bryce	Stormont, Belfast	Scotland by 11 runs
WT20I 893	25 May	Laura Delany	Kathryn Bryce	Stormont, Belfast	Ireland by 61 runs
WT20I 894	26 May	Laura Delany	Kathryn Bryce	Stormont, Belfast	Ireland by 41 runs
WT20I 895	27 May	Laura Delany	Kathryn Bryce	Stormont, Belfast	Ireland by 6 wickets

Test series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
Test 2422	2–6 June	Joe Root	Kane Williamson	Lord's, London	Match drawn
Test 2423	10–14 June	Joe Root	Tom Latham	Edgbaston, Birmingham	New Zealand by 8 wickets

Only Test
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
Test 2427	7–11 July	Brendan Taylor	Mominul Haque	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 220 runs
2020–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – ODI series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
ODI 4304	16 July	Brendan Taylor	Tamim Iqbal	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 155 runs
ODI 4306	18 July	Brendan Taylor	Tamim Iqbal	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 3 wickets
ODI 4308	20 July	Brendan Taylor	Tamim Iqbal	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 5 wickets
T20I series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
T20I 1196	22 July	Sikandar Raza	Mahmudullah	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 8 wickets
T20I 1198	23 July	Sikandar Raza	Mahmudullah	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Zimbabwe by 23 runs
T20I 1203	25 July	Sikandar Raza	Mahmudullah	Harare Sports Club, Harare	Bangladesh by 5 wickets

WT20I series
No.	Date	Home captain	Away captain	Venue	Result
WT20I 921	26 July	Laura Delany	Heather Siegers	The Village, Dublin	Ireland by 28 runs
WT20I 921a	28 July	Laura Delany	Heather Siegers	The Village, Dublin	Match abandoned
WT20I 922	29 July	Laura Delany	Heather Siegers	The Village, Dublin	Ireland by 6 wickets
WT20I 923	30 July	Laura Delany	Heather Siegers	The Village, Dublin	Netherlands by 7 wickets (DLS)

On-going tournaments

Scotland in Netherlands

Sri Lanka in Bangladesh

Scotland women in Ireland

2021 Papua New Guinea Tri-Nation Series

Ireland in Netherlands

New Zealand in England

South Africa in West Indies

India women in England

World Test Championship Final

Sri Lanka in England

Pakistan women in West Indies

Bangladesh in Zimbabwe

Pakistan in England

Australia in West Indies

South Africa in Ireland

India in Sri Lanka

2021 Scotland Tri-Nation Series

Netherlands women in Ireland

Pakistan in West Indies

Afghanistan in Sri Lanka

Australia in Bangladesh

India in England

Zimbabwe in Ireland

Thailand women in Zimbabwe

South Africa women in West Indies

2021 United States Tri-Nation Series

New Zealand women in England

Zimbabwe in Scotland

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