International cricket in 2020

The 2020 international cricket season took place from May to September 2020.[1][2] 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.[3]

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact on international cricket fixtures.[4] Bangladesh's matches against Ireland were postponed on 21 March 2020.[5] 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.[6] On 9 April 2020, Australia's tour to Bangladesh was postponed.[7] On 20 April 2020, South Africa's tour to Sri Lanka was also postponed.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] The ICC announced that the qualifier had been moved back to 2021.[12] 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.[13][14]

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.[15] The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that it had called off their tours to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.[16] Scotland's one-off T20I match against Australia was cancelled,[17] New Zealand's tour to Bangladesh to play two Test matches was postponed,[18] and Bangladesh's tour to Sri Lanka to play three Test matches were all postponed.[19] The latter was later rescheduled to be played in October 2020.[20] On 30 June, Cricket Australia confirmed that their planned home series against Zimbabwe had also been postponed due to the virus.[21] On 8 August 2020, Afghanistan's planned tour to Zimbabwe for five T20I matches was called off.[22] Also in August 2020, the Netherlands tour to Zimbabwe was postponed,[23] and India's tour to South Africa was cancelled due to a clash with the rescheduled 2020 Indian Premier League.[24] 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.[25]

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.[26] Players were banned from using saliva to shine the ball, with five penalty runs being awarded to the opposition for repeated transgressions.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29] 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.[30] South Africa's tour of the West Indies was also postponed due to the rescheduling of the England-West Indies series.[31] 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.[32] The fixture was also the first match in the 2020–23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League tournament, with England beating Ireland by six wickets.[33] The ICC began the use of technology to monitor front-foot no-balls for all matches in the World Cup Super League.[34] The ICC also started to trial the technology for the first time in a Test match, during Pakistan's Test series against England.[35] 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.[36] 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.[37]