England's Winter Test Tours 2019/20

England will travel to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series in March 2020 as part of the ICC World Test Championship.

The first Test will begin on 19 March in Galle and the second in Colombo on 27 March.

England are already scheduled to play a two-Test series against New Zealand in November and a five-Test series against South Africa in December and January.

Each of the Sri Lanka Tests will be worth 60 points in the inaugural World Test Championship.

Nine teams will play six Test series over a two-year period - three at home and three away - culminating in a final between the top two, which will be held in England in 2021.

England are currently fifth with 56 points after drawing the Ashes series against Australia this summer.

They completed a series whitewash on their last Test tour of Sri Lanka in November 2018.

 

First up for England are two tests against New Zealand (once the T-20's are over):

21-25 1st Test, Mount Maunganui (22:00 GMT, 20-26 Nov)
29-3 Dec 2nd Test, Hamilton (22:00 GMT, 28 Nov-2 Dec)

The two Tests against New Zealand do not form part of the ICC World Test Championship.

 

England Test squad for New Zealand:
Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire)
Rory Burns (Surrey)
Jos Buttler (Lancashire)
Zak Crawley (Kent)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Joe Denly (Kent)
Jack Leach (Somerset)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Matthew Parkinson (Lancashire)
Ollie Pope (Surrey)
Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)

Jimmy Anderson left out to ensure fitness for South Africa, and Jonny Bairstow "rested"

 

Bairstow recalled to the squad as cover for Denly

 

Looks like Sibley will open the batting with Denly at 3
Pope to bat in the middle order
Curran to be the other seamer
Expected Team - Burns, Sibley, Denly, Root, Stokes, Pope, Butler (wk), Curran, Archer, Leach, Broad

Will be interesting if the Kiwis pick Fergusson

 

A steady start by England on Day 1. Attritional cricket on a slow wicket.
Young Sibley did ok. His dismissal was interesting, with only three quarters of the bat showing - hard to tell from one ball, but lets hope that's not a flaw

 

Until Stokes got out in the first innings England were looking ok. After that they were out batted and out bowled.

The old problem about how we bowl on flat wickets surfaced again. I had hoped that Archer would solve that - looks unlikely in the short term

Root's form a big worry.

 

So a draw in Hamilton on a pitch that made a result unlikely
To be fair NZ's ranking is above ours, so a series defeat not the end of the world (and it's not part of the ICC Test Championship)

A welcome return to form for Joe Root - hopefully he can kick-on in South Africa
Burns has cemented his place