India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England to tour Australia this summer
What's the story?
Cricket Australia announced their 2019-20 summer schedule for both the Australian men's and women's team. For the first time in 41 years, the Australian summer will extend to the month of March as they will host their Trans-Tasman rivals, New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
The Australian men's team will host Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2019/20 while the women's team will host the women's teams of India, England and Sri Lanka.
The background
Australia had one of the their worst summers last year as for the first time in cricket history they lost a home Test series to India.
Apart from that the Aussies even failed to perform well against South Africa in both the limited overs series. However, they will have their star players Steve Smith and David Warner back in the team when they take field in the 2019/20 home summer.
The heart of the matter
As mentioned ahead, 5 cricketing nations will tour Australia from October 2019 to March 2020 and here's how the Australian summer schedule looks like:
Full 2019-20 International Fixtures
All start times are subject to change, and listed in Australian Timings
Women's CommBank T20s v Sri Lanka
September 29: North Sydney Oval, 2.30pm
September 30: North Sydney Oval, 7pm
October 2: North Sydney Oval, 2pm
Women's CommBank ODIs v Sri Lanka
October 5: Allan Border Field, 10am
October 7: Allan Border Field, 10am
October 9: Allan Border Field, 10am
Men's Gillette T20s v Sri Lanka
October 27: Adelaide Oval, 2pm
October 30: Gabba, 6.10pm
November 1: MCG, 7.10pm
Men's Gillette T20s v Pakistan
November 3: SCG, 2.30pm
November 5: Manuka Oval, 7.10pm
November 8: Perth Stadium, 4.30pm
Men's Domain Test Series v Pakistan
November 21-25: Gabba, 10am
November 29-December 3: Adelaide Oval, 2pm (D/N)
Men's Domain Test Series v New Zealand
December 12-16: Perth Stadium, 1pm (D/N)
December 26-30: MCG, 10.30am
January 3-7: SCG, 10.30am
Women's CommBank T20 tri-series
January 31: India v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 1: Australia v England, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 2: Australia v India, Manuka Oval, 2.10pm
February 7: India v England, Junction Oval, 2.10pm
February 8: Australia v India, Junction Oval, 2.10pm
February 9: Australia v England, Junction Oval, 2.10pm
February 12: Tri-series Final, Junction Oval, 1.40pm
Men's Gillette ODIs v New Zealand
March 13: SCG, 2.30pm (D/N)
March 15: SCG, 10.30am
March 20: Blundstone Arena, 2.30pm (D/N)
Australia's men's team will tour India in late January next year. The Aussies are also scheduled to tour South Africa and Bangladesh in February 2020. Thus, there will be a 63-day break in the Australian home season.
CA's Head of Cricket Operations Peter Roach said:
"Scheduling international cricket is challenging in that nine of the ten major cricketing countries have seasons similar to ours, so working with them to find space in the calendar to fulfil our obligations to the ICC Future Tours Program (FTP) is a juggling act."
What's next?
The Australian home season kicks off on 29th September with the women's T20 series versus Sri Lanka. Do tune in to Sportskeeda for the live coverage of the entire Australian summer.