The first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent England comes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team, which consisted of 11 gentlemen from any part of England exclusive of
Kent, played against "the Unconquerable County" of Kent and lost by a margin of "very few notches". Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of a century. In 1846
William Clarke formed the
All-England Eleven. This team eventually competed against a
United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1847 and 1856. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season if judged by the quality of the players.
Early tours The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with
England touring North America. This team had six players from the All-England Eleven, six from the United All-England Eleven and was captained by
George Parr. With the outbreak of the
American Civil War, attention turned elsewhere.
English tourists visited Australia in 1861–62 with this first tour organised as a commercial venture by Messrs Spiers and Pond, restaurateurs of
Melbourne. Most matches played during tours prior to 1877 were "against odds", with the opposing team fielding more than 11 players to make for a more even contest. This first Australian tour was mostly against odds of at least 18/11. The tour was so successful that Parr led a
second tour in 1863–64.
James Lillywhite led a subsequent England team which sailed on the P&O steamship
Poonah on 21 September 1876. They played a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11-a-side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the inaugural Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with
Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time, the match was promoted as ''James Lillywhite's XI v Combined Victoria and New South Wales''.
1880s England lost their first home series 1–0 in 1882, with
The Sporting Times printing an obituary on English cricket: As a result of this loss, the tour of
1882–83 was dubbed by England captain
Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes". England, with a mixture of amateurs and professionals, won the series 2–1. Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a
bail,
ball or even a woman's veil, and so
The Ashes was born. A fourth match was then played which Australia won by four wickets. However, the match was not considered part of the Ashes series. England dominated many of these early contests, with England winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884 and 1898. During this period England also played their first Test match against
South Africa in 1889 at
Port Elizabeth.
1890s England won the 1890 Ashes series 2–0, with the third match of the series being the first Test match to be abandoned. England lost 2–1 in the 1891–92 series, although England regained the urn the following year. England again won the 1894–95 series, winning 3–2 under the leadership of
Andrew Stoddart. In 1895–96, England played South Africa, winning all Tests in the series. The 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Grace,
Lord Hawke and
Warwickshire captain
Herbert Bainbridge. Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played. England lost the 1899 Ashes series 1–0, with Grace making his final Test appearance in the first match of the series.
1900s The start of the 20th century saw mixed results for England as they lost four of the eight Ashes series between 1900 and 1914. During this period, England lost their first series against South Africa in the 1905–06 season 4–1 as their batting faltered. England lost their first series of the new century to Australia in 1901–02 Ashes. Australia also won the 1902 series, which was memorable for exciting cricket, including
Gilbert Jessop scoring a Test century in just 70 minutes. England regained the Ashes in 1904 under the captaincy of
Pelham Warner.
R. E. Foster scored 287 on his debut and
Wilfred Rhodes took 15 wickets in a match. In 1905–06, England lost 4–1 against South Africa. England avenged the defeat in 1907, when they won the series 1–0 under the captaincy of Foster. However, they lost the 1909 Ashes series against Australia, using 25 players in the process. England also lost to South Africa, with
Jack Hobbs scoring his first of 15 centuries on the tour.
1910s England toured Australia in 1911–12 and beat their opponents 4–1. The team included the likes of Rhodes, Hobbs,
Frank Woolley and
Sydney Barnes. England lost the first match of the series but bounced back and won the next four Tests. This proved to be the last Ashes series before the war. The 1912 season saw England take part in a unique experiment. A nine-Test triangular tournament involving England, South Africa and Australia was set up. The series was hampered by a very wet summer and player disputes however and the tournament was considered a failure with the
Daily Telegraph stating: With Australia sending a weakened team and the South African bowlers being ineffective England dominated the tournament winning four of their six matches. The match between Australia and South Africa at
Lord's was visited by
King George V, the first time a reigning monarch had watched Test cricket. England went on one more tour before the outbreak of the
First World War, beating South Africa 4–0, with Barnes taking 49 wickets in the series.
1920s in 1928. England won by a record margin of 675 runs. England's first match after the war was in the 1920–21 season against Australia. Still feeling the effects of the war England went down to a series of crushing defeats and suffered their first whitewash losing the series 5–0. Six Australians scored hundreds while Mailey spun out 36 English batsmen. Things were no better in the next few Ashes series losing the 1921 Ashes series 3–0 and the 1924–25 Ashes 4–1. England's fortunes were to change in 1926 as they regained the Ashes and were a formidable team during this period dispatching Australia 4–1 in the 1928–29 Ashes tour. In the same year the
West Indies became the fourth nation to be granted
Test status and played their first game against England. England won each of these three Tests by an innings, and a view was expressed in the press that their elevation had proved a mistake although
Learie Constantine did
the double on the tour. In the 1929–30 season England went on two concurrent tours with one team going to New Zealand (who were granted Test status earlier that year) and the other to the West Indies. Despite sending two separate teams England won against New Zealand 1–0 and drawn with the West Indies 1–1.
1930s evades a
Bodyline ball during the
English cricket team tour in Australia in 1932–33. Note the number of leg-side fielders. The 1930 Ashes series saw a young
Don Bradman dominate the tour, scoring 974 runs in his seven Test innings. He scored 254 at Lord's, 334 at
Headingley and 232 at
The Oval. Australia regained the Ashes winning the series 2–1. As a result of Bradman's prolific run-scoring the England captain
Douglas Jardine chose to develop the already existing
leg theory into fast leg theory, or
bodyline, as a tactic to stop Bradman. Fast leg theory involved bowling fast balls directly at the batsman's body. The batsman would need to defend himself, and if he touched the ball with the bat, he risked being caught by one of a large number of fielders placed on the leg side. Using Jardine's fast leg theory, England won the next Ashes series 4–1, but complaints about the Bodyline tactic caused crowd disruption on the tour, and threats of diplomatic action from the
Australian Cricket Board, which during the tour sent the following cable to the MCC in London: Later, Jardine was removed from the captaincy and the
Laws of Cricket changed so that no more than one fast ball aimed at the body was permitted per over, and having more than two fielders behind square leg was banned. England's following tour of India in the 1933–34 season was the first Test match to be staged in the subcontinent. The series was also notable for
Stan Nichols and
Nobby Clark bowling so many bouncers that the Indian batsman wore
solar toupées instead of caps to protect themselves. Australia won the 1934 Ashes series 2–1 and kept the urn for the following 19 years. England drew the 1938 Ashes, meaning Australia retained the urn. England went into the final match of the series at The Oval 1–0 down, but won the final game by an innings and 579 runs.
Len Hutton made the highest ever Test score by an Englishman, making 364 in England first innings to help them reach 903, their highest ever score against Australia. The 1938–39 tour of South Africa saw another experiment with the deciding Test being a
timeless Test that was played to a finish. England lead 1–0 going into the final timeless match at Durban. Despite the final Test being 'timeless', the game ended in a draw after 10 days as England had to catch the train to catch the boat home. A record 1,981 runs were scored, and the concept of timeless Tests was abandoned. England hosted the West Indies in 1939 before the
Second World War, although a team for an MCC tour of India was selected more in hope than expectation of the matches being played.
1940s Test cricket resumed after the war in 1946, and England won their first match back against India. However, they struggled in the 1946–47 Ashes series, losing 3–0 in Australia under
Wally Hammond's captaincy. England beat South Africa 3–0 in 1947 with
Denis Compton scoring 1,187 runs in the series. The 1947–48 series against the West Indies was another disappointment for England, with the team losing 2–0 following injuries to several key players. England suffered further humiliation against Bradman's invincible team in the 1948 Ashes series. Hutton was controversially dropped for the third Test, and England were bowled out for just 52 at The Oval. The series proved to be Bradman's final Ashes series. In 1948–49, England beat South Africa 2–0 under the captaincy of George Mann. The series included a record breaking stand of 359 between Hutton and
Cyril Washbrook. The decade ended with England drawing the Test series against New Zealand, with every match ending in a draw.
1950s On 29 June 1950 England lost to the West Indies for the first time, with this being followed by a 3–1 series loss when they lost at
The Oval on 16 August 1950. batting during the 5th Test Match of the
1950–51 Ashes series played at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ian Johnson is bowling Their fortunes against Australia changed on the 1953 Ashes tour as they won the series 1–0. England did not lose a series between their 1950–51 and 1958–59 tours of Australia and secured famous victory in
1954–55 under the captaincy of
Len Hutton, thanks to
Frank Tyson whose 6/85 at Sydney and 7/27 at Melbourne are remembered as the fastest bowling ever seen in Australia. The 1956 series was remembered for the bowling of
Jim Laker who took 46 wickets at an average of 9.62, including figures of 19/90 at
Old Trafford. After drawing to South Africa, England defeated the West Indies and New Zealand comfortably. The England team then left for Australia in the 1958–59 season with a team that had been hailed as the strongest ever to leave on an Ashes tour but lost the series 4–0 as
Richie Benaud's revitalised Australians were too strong, with England struggling with the bat throughout the series. On 24 August 1959, England inflicted its only 5–0 whitewash over
India. All out for 194 at The Oval, India lost the last test by an innings. England's batsman
Ken Barrington and
Colin Cowdrey both had an excellent series with the bat, with Barrington scoring 357 runs across the series and Cowdrey scoring 344.
1960s The early and middle 1960s were poor periods for English cricket. Despite England's strength on paper, Australia held the Ashes and the West Indies dominated England in the early part of the decade. May stood down as captain in 1961 following the
1961 Ashes defeat.
Ted Dexter succeeded him as captain but England continued to suffer indifferent results. In 1961–62, they beat Pakistan, but also lost to India. The following year saw England and Australia tie the 1962–63 Ashes series 1–1, meaning Australia retained the urn. Despite beating New Zealand 3–0, England went on to lose to the West Indies, and again failed in the 1964 Ashes, losing the home series 1–0, which marked the end of Dexter's captaincy. However, from 1968 to 1971 they played 27 consecutive Test matches without defeat, winning 9 and drawing 18 (including the abandoned Test at Melbourne in 1970–71). The sequence began when they drew with Australia at Lord's in the Second Test of the
1968 Ashes series and ended in 1971 when
India won the Third Test at The Oval by four wickets. They played 13 Tests with only one defeat immediately beforehand and so played a total of 40 consecutive Tests with only one defeat, dating from their innings victory over the West Indies at The Oval in 1966. During this period they beat New Zealand, India, the West Indies, and Pakistan, and under
Ray Illingworth's leadership, regained
The Ashes from Australia in 1970–71.
1970s batting against
New Zealand during a test match in February 1978 at
Basin Reserve The 1970s, for the England team, can be largely split into three parts. Early in the decade, Illingworth's team dominated world cricket, winning the Ashes away in 1971 and then retaining them at home in 1972. The same team beat Pakistan at home in 1971 and played by far the better cricket against India that season. However, England were largely helped by the rain to sneak the Pakistan series 1–0 but the same rain saved India twice and one England collapse saw them lose to India. This was, however, one of (if not the) strongest England team ever with the likes of Illingworth,
Geoffrey Boycott,
John Edrich,
Basil D'Oliveira,
Dennis Amiss,
Alan Knott,
John Snow and
Derek Underwood at its core. The mid-1970s were more turbulent. Illingworth and several others had refused to tour India in 1972–73 which led to a clamour for Illingworth's job by the end of that summer – England had just been beaten 2–0 by a flamboyant West Indies team – with several England players well over 35.
Mike Denness was the surprising choice but only lasted 18 months; his results against poor opposition were good, but England were badly exposed as ageing and lacking in good fast bowling against the 1974–75 Australians, losing that series 4–1 to lose the Ashes. Denness was replaced in 1975 by
Tony Greig. While he managed to avoid losing to Australia, his team were largely thrashed the following year by the young and very much upcoming West Indies for whom Greig's infamous "grovel" remark acted as motivation. Greig's finest hour as England's captain was the 1976–77 win over India in India. When Greig was discovered as being instrumental in World Series Cricket, he was sacked, and replaced by
Mike Brearley. Brearley's team showed again the hyperbole that is often spoken when one team dominates in cricket. While his team of 1977–80 contained some young players who went on to become England greats, most notably future captains
Ian Botham,
David Gower and
Graham Gooch, their opponents were often very much weakened by the absence of their World Series players, especially in 1978, when England drew New Zealand 1–1 and Pakistan 2–0 before thrashing what was effectively Australia's 2nd XI 5–1 in 1978–79.
1980s The England team, with Brearley's exit in 1980, was never truly settled throughout the 1980s, which will probably be remembered as a low point for the team. While some of the great players like Botham, Gooch and Gower had fine careers, the team seldom succeeded in beating good opposition throughout the decade and did not score a home Test victory (except against minnows Sri Lanka) between September 1985 and July 1990. Botham took over the captaincy in 1980 and they put up a good fight against the West Indies, losing a five match Test series 1–0, although England were humbled in the return series. After scoring a pair in the first Test against Australia, Botham lost the captaincy due to his poor form, and was replaced by Brearley. Botham returned to form and played exceptionally in the remainder of the series, being named man of the match in the third, fourth and fifth Tests. The series became known as Botham's Ashes as England recorded a 3–1 victory.
Keith Fletcher took over as captain in 1981, but England lost his first series in charge against India.
Bob Willis took over as captain in 1982 and enjoyed victories over India and Pakistan, but lost the Ashes after Australia clinched the series 2–1. England hosted the World Cup in 1983 and reached the semi-finals, but their Test form remained poor, as they suffered defeats against New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies. Gower took over as skipper in 1984 and led the team to a 2–1 victory over India. They went on to win the 1985 Ashes 3–1, although after this came a poor run of form. Defeat to the West Indies dented the team's confidence, and they went on to lose to India 2–0. In 1986,
Micky Stewart was appointed the first full-time England coach. England beat New Zealand, but there was little hope of them retaining the Ashes in 1986–87. However, despite being described as a team that 'can't bat, can't bowl and can't field', they went on to win the series 2–1. After losing consecutive series against Pakistan, England drew a three match Test series against New Zealand 0–0. They reached the final of the 1987 World Cup, but
lost by seven runs against Australia. After losing 4–0 to the West Indies, England lost the Ashes to a resurgent Australia led by Allan Border. With the likes of Gatting banned following a rebel tour to South Africa, a new look England team suffered defeat again against the West Indies, although this time by a margin of 2–1.
1990s If the 1980s were a low point for English Test cricket, then the 1990s were only a slight improvement. The arrival of Gooch as captain in 1990 forced a move toward more professionalism and especially fitness though it took some time for old habits to die. Creditable performances against India and New Zealand in 1990 were followed by a hard-fought draw against the 1991 West Indies and a strong performance in the
1992 Cricket World Cup in which the England team finished as
runners-up for the second consecutive World Cup, but landmark losses against Australia in 1990–91 and especially Pakistan in 1992 showed England up badly in terms of bowling. So bad was England's bowling in 1993 that
Rod Marsh described England's pace attack at one point as "pie throwers". Having lost three of the first four Tests played in England in 1993, Gooch resigned to be replaced by
Michael Atherton.1992 also saw Scotland sever ties with the England and Wales team, and begin to compete as the
Scotland national team. More selectorial problems abounded during Atherton's reign as new chairman of selectors and coach Ray Illingworth (then into his 60s) assumed almost sole responsibility for the team off the field. The youth policy which had seen England emerge from the West Indies tour of 1993–94 with some credit (though losing to a seasoned Windies team) was abandoned and players such as Gatting and Gooch were persisted with when well into their 30s and 40s. England continued to do well at home against weaker opponents such as India, New Zealand and a West Indies team beginning to fade but struggled badly against improving teams like Pakistan and South Africa. Atherton had offered his resignation after losing the 1997 Ashes series 3–2 having been 1–0 up after two matches – eventually to resign one series later in early 1998. England, looking for talent, went through a whole raft of new players during this period, such as
Ronnie Irani,
Adam Hollioake,
Craig White,
Graeme Hick and
Mark Ramprakash.
Alec Stewart took the reins as captain in 1998, but another losing Ashes series and early World Cup exit cost him Test and ODI captaincy in 1999. This should not detract from the 1998 home Test series where England showed great fortitude to beat a powerful South African team 2–1. Another reason for their poor performances were the demands of
County Cricket teams on their players, meaning that England could rarely field a full-strength team on their tours. This eventually led to the
ECB taking over from the MCC as the governing body of England and the implementation of central contracts. By 1999, with coach David Lloyd resigning after the World Cup exit and new captain
Nasser Hussain just appointed, England hit rock bottom (literally ranked as the lowest-rated Test nation) after losing 2–1 to New Zealand in shambolic fashion. Hussain was booed on the Oval balcony as the crowd jeered "We've got the worst team in the world" to the tune of "
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".
2000s in 2004 Central contracts were installed – reducing players workloads – and following the arrival of Zimbabwean coach
Duncan Fletcher, England thrashed the fallen West Indies
3–1. England's results in Asia improved that winter with series wins against both
Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. Hussain's team had a far harder edge to it, avoiding the anticipated "Greenwash" in the
2001 Ashes series against the all-powerful Australian team. The nucleus the team was slowly coming together as players such as Hussain himself,
Graham Thorpe,
Darren Gough and
Ashley Giles began to be regularly selected. By 2003 though, having endured
another Ashes drubbing as well as another first-round exit from the
World Cup, Hussain resigned as captain after one Test against
South Africa.
Michael Vaughan took over, with players encouraged to express themselves. England won five consecutive Test series prior to facing Australia in the
2005 Ashes series,
taking the team to second place in the
ICC Test Championship table. During this period England defeated the West Indies
home and
away,
New Zealand, and
Bangladesh at home, and
South Africa in South Africa. In June 2005, England played its first ever
T20 international match,
defeating Australia by 100 runs. Later that year, England defeated Australia 2–1 in a thrilling series to regain the Ashes for the first time in 16 years, having lost them in 1989. Following the 2005 Ashes win, the team suffered from a spate of serious injuries to key players such as Vaughan, Giles,
Andrew Flintoff and
Simon Jones. As a result, the team underwent an enforced period of transition. A
2–0 defeat in Pakistan was followed by two drawn away series with
India and
Sri Lanka. In the
home Test series victory against Pakistan in July and August 2006, several promising new players emerged. Most notable were the left-arm orthodox spin bowler
Monty Panesar, the first
Sikh to play Test cricket for England, and left-handed opening batsman
Alastair Cook. The
2006–07 Ashes series was keenly anticipated and was expected to provide a level of competition comparable to the 2005 series. In the event, England, captained by Flintoff who was deputising for the injured Vaughan, lost all five Tests to concede the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years. In the
2007 Cricket World Cup, England lost to most of the Test playing nations they faced, beating only the
West Indies and
Bangladesh, although they also avoided defeat by any of the non-Test playing nations. Even so, the unimpressive nature of most of their victories in the tournament, combined with heavy defeats by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, left many commentators criticising the manner in which the England team approached the one-day game. Coach Duncan Fletcher resigned after eight years in the job as a result and was succeeded by former
Sussex coach
Peter Moores. bowling out
Peter Siddle's during the 2nd 2009 Ashes Test at Lord's In 2007–08, England toured
Sri Lanka and
New Zealand, losing the first series 1–0 and winning the second 2–1. These series were followed up at home in May 2008 with a
2–0 home series win against New Zealand, with the results easing pressure on Moores – who was not at ease with his team, particularly star batsman
Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen succeeded Vaughan as captain in June 2008, after England had been well beaten by
South Africa at home. The poor relationship between the two came to a head on the
2008–09 tour to India. England lost the series 1–0 and both men resigned their positions, although Pietersen remained a member of the England team. Moores was replaced as coach by Zimbabwean
Andy Flower. Against this background, England toured the
West Indies under the captaincy of
Andrew Strauss and, in a disappointing performance, lost the Test series 1–0. The
2009 Ashes series featured the first Test match played in Wales, at
Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. England drew the match thanks to a last-wicket stand by bowlers
James Anderson and Panesar. A victory for each team followed before the series was decided at The Oval. Thanks to fine bowling by
Stuart Broad and
Graeme Swann and a debut century by
Jonathan Trott, England regained the Ashes.
2010s After a drawn
Test series in South Africa, England won their first ever ICC event, the
2010 World Twenty20, with a seven-wicket win over Australia in Barbados. The following winter in the
2010–11 Ashes, they beat Australia 3–1 to retain the urn and record their first series win in Australia for 24 years. Furthermore, all three of their wins were by an innings – the first time a touring team had ever recorded three innings victories in a single Test series,
Alastair Cook earning
Man of the Series with 766 runs. takes the winning wicket in the
2010–11 Ashes series at the
SCG. England struggled to match their Test form in the
2011 Cricket World Cup. Despite beating South Africa and tying with eventual winners India, England suffered shock losses to Ireland and Bangladesh before losing in the quarter-finals to Sri Lanka. However the team's excellent form in the Test match arena continued and on 13 August 2011, they became the world's top-ranked Test team after
comfortably whitewashing India 4–0, their sixth consecutive series victory and eighth in the past nine series. However, this status only lasted a year – having
lost 3–0 to Pakistan over the winter, England were
beaten 2–0 by South Africa, who replaced them at the top of the rankings. It was their first home series loss since 2008, against the same opposition. This loss saw the resignation of Strauss as captain and his retirement from cricket. Cook, who was already in charge of the ODI team, replaced Strauss and led England to a
2–1 victory in India – their first in the country since 1984–85. In doing so, he became the first captain to score centuries in his first five Tests as captain and became England's leading century-maker with 23 centuries to his name. After finishing as runners-up in the
ICC Champions Trophy, England faced Australia in back-to-back Ashes series. A
3–0 home win secured England the urn for the fourth time in five series. However, in
the return series, they found themselves utterly demolished in a 5–0 defeat, their second Ashes whitewash in under a decade. Their misery was compounded by batsman Jonathan Trott leaving the tour early due to a stress-related illness and the mid-series retirement of spinner Graeme Swann. Following the tour, head coach Flower resigned his post while Pietersen was dropped indefinitely from the England team. Flower was replaced by his predecessor, Moores, but he was sacked for a second time after a string of disappointing results including failing to advance from the group stage at the
2015 World Cup. .Moores was replaced by Australian
Trevor Bayliss who oversaw an upturn of form in the ODI team, including series victories against
New Zealand and
Pakistan. In the Test arena, England reclaimed the Ashes
3–2 in the summer of 2015 before regaining the
Basil D'Oliveira Trophy in the
2015–16 winter. However, the upturn in fortune of the ODI and T20I teams coincided with steadily declining form of the Test team, especially with the bat, despite the emergence of key players
Joe Root and
Ben Stokes. After recording their
first ever loss to Bangladesh in a Test, a
4–0 loss to India on the same tour resulted in the resignation of Cook as captain in early 2017, being replaced by Root, who was unable to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the team: in his first year as captain, the team suffered another away Ashes drubbing followed by a loss to New Zealand, embarrassingly dismissed for just 58 in the first test, although the team did recover
to beat India 4–1 in 2018. success at
10 Downing Street with
Theresa May England entered the
2019 Cricket World Cup as favourites, having been ranked the number one ODI team by the ICC for over a year prior to the tournament. However, shock defeats to Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the
group stage left them on the brink of elimination and needing to win their final two games against India and New Zealand to guarantee progression to the semi-finals. This was achieved, putting their campaign back on track, and an eight-wicket victory over Australia in the semi-final at Edgbaston meant England were in their first World Cup final since 1992. The
final against New Zealand at Lord's has been described as one of the greatest and most dramatic matches in the history of cricket, with some calling it the "greatest ODI in history", as both the match and subsequent
Super Over were tied, after England went into the final over of their innings 14 runs behind New Zealand's total. England won by virtue of having scored more boundaries throughout the match, securing their maiden World Cup title in their fourth final appearance. That summer's
Ashes was the last series with Bayliss as coach and the series was full of moments including the emergence of
Rory Burns and
Jofra Archer, but it was Stokes's virtuosic effort in the
third Test at Headingley which entered cricketing folklore: with only one wicket remaining and 76 more runs still to win, Stokes hit an unbeaten 135 to keep the series alive. England eventually drew the series 2–2.
2020s trophy Under new coach
Chris Silverwood, England began the new decade well when they beat South Africa
3–1 away from home in early 2020, the first time that the England cricket team had won three Tests on a tour to South Africa
since 1913–14. The impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic was immediately felt when England were withdrawn from their tour of Sri Lanka whilst being on the field, England were able to fulfil all of their fixture obligations during this time, but the summer of 2021 would be marred by COVID interruptions: England were forced to select a second-choice XI for the
ODI series against Pakistan due to a COVID-19 outbreak, and the deciding test of the
2021 Pataudi Trophy was postponed for 12 months due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian camp. After being beaten in the semi finals of the
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, the
2021–22 Ashes series could not have started worse for England when
Rory Burns was bowled by
Mitchell Starc on the first ball of the series. Four heavy defeats led to Silverwood's resignation as coach and
Ashley Giles's resignation as director of cricket. England then
toured the West Indies and dropped several senior players, including Burns and
Dawid Malan but also their leading fast bowlers,
James Anderson and
Stuart Broad. That decision backfired when England could not bowl out the West Indies in the first two tests and following a loss in the deciding test, Root resigned as captain after winning just one test in his last 17. 2022 saw a period of transition in both Test and white-ball teams; under a new management structure of
Rob Key as director of cricket, England hired
Ben Stokes as captain and
Brendon McCullum as coach of the Test team and their attacking play became known as
Bazball, winning 11 of their first 13 tests, beating New Zealand, India, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ireland. The white-ball team hired
Matthew Mott as coach and set the
highest total in
List A cricket when they scored 498–4 against The Netherlands in June.
Jos Buttler succeeded
Eoin Morgan as white-ball captain and won the
2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, becoming the first team to hold both the 50-over and 20-over trophies concurrently. The following year saw England draw the
2023 Ashes series and crash out of the
2023 Cricket World Cup in the group stage.
Recent results ==Forthcoming fixtures==