Thursday 2 April 2020 02:57, UK
England should be playing a Test series in Sri Lanka - but the coronavirus pandemic means the side will not be in action for around three months at the earliest.
A two-Test contest against Sri Lanka was due to begin in Galle on Thursday and then conclude in Colombo from March 27, with England looking for valuable World Test Championship points.
However, the fixtures were postponed due to the worldwide outbreak - next January is potentially when they could be rearranged for - with England ending their final warm-up match prematurely and returning home.
Joe Root and his players now face a waiting game to see when any form of cricket, let alone international matches, resumes, with the calendar across the globe decimated due to coronavirus.
England's home summer is poised to begin at The Oval on June 4 with the start of a three-Test series against West Indies, which also features games at Edgbaston from June 12 and Lord's from June 25.
The first Test is around 11 weeks away but with no domestic cricket to be played in England until at least May 28, that series is very much in jeopardy.
England's all-format summer is also supposed to include six white-ball games against Australia, starting with three key T20 internationals - Durham (July 3), Old Trafford (July 5) and Headingley (July 7) - ahead of the autumn's T20 World Cup on Aussie soil.
The T20 tussles should swiftly be followed by three one-day internationals at Lord's (11), The Ageas Bowl (July 14) and Bristol (July 16) before attention returns to red-ball cricket and Pakistan.
The ODIs against Australia may not be England's most important assignment as with the next 50-over World Cup not until 2023 - there are two T20 World Cups before then - Eoin Morgan's men are set to experiment in one-day internationals as they did in South Africa earlier this year.
Yet, they will still want to continue their proud record against Australia in the format, having won 13 of their 16 ODIs against their old rivals since transforming their white-ball fortunes in 2015.
That run included a 5-0 whitewash at home in 2018 and an eight-wicket thrashing in last summer's World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston.
The Pakistan Test series is then scheduled to begin at Lord's on July 30, when hopefully the coronavirus pandemic has started to settle down. Old Trafford (from July 7) and Trent Bridge from (August 20) are the venues for Tests two and three.
England's 50-over dominance against Australia has not been matched against Pakistan in Test cricket, with Root's side having not won a series between the teams since 2010. Defeats in the UAE in 2012 and 2016 preceded drawn series in England in 2016 and 2018.
England's summer then wraps up with six more white-ball encounters, as three Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan - Headingley (August 29), Cardiff (August 31), The Ageas Bowl (September 2) - precede three ODIs at home to Ireland - Trent Bridge (September 10), Edgbaston (September 12), The Oval (September 15).
But as we do not yet know for sure when the summer will begin - it may not be until June or July at the earliest - all these dates are likely to be subject to change, though the ECB will hope not to have to tinker with The Hundred, with the inaugural season of the domestic 100-ball competition running coinciding with the school holidays.
England are then due to hotfoot it to India for three ODIs and as many T20s before heading to Australia in October to start their pursuit of a second T20 World Cup crown - a decade after the likes Kevin Pietersen, Craig Kieswetter, Paul Collingwood and Graeme Swann helped them secure a first, in the Caribbean.
England have been drawn in Group 2 of the Super 12s stage and will play South Africa (October 30 in Sydney), India (November 1 in Melbourne) and Afghanistan (November 9 in Brisbane), as well as games against two qualifiers (October 26 in Perth and November 7 in Adelaide).
They will then hope to be involved in the semi-finals (November 11 in Sydney or November 12 in Adelaide) and the final (November 15 in Melbourne).
England return to India in January 2021 for a five-Test series, including a potential day-nighter, though there has been talk that the postponed series in Sri Lanka could be slotted in earlier that month with both cricket boards keen to stress the games have not been cancelled.
The coronavirus is keeping England's cricketers off the park at the moment but when it eases the calendar will be bulging again.
For now, though, everything is quiet, with England's players having rests rather than playing Tests. At least there is a virtual game going on...
