• Australia and India will play five Test matches between 2024 and 2023.
• The Border-Gavaskar Trophy series will be played back-to-back.
• Five Tests will be played between the two nations not for the first time.

Five Test matches between Australia and India will be played back-to-back in the upcoming cycle of the Future Tours Program (FTP).

When India is slated to visit Australia in 2024, the enlarged bilateral engagement, which is played for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, will begin. The home series against India in 2023 will still consist of four Test matches and take place in February or March.

As the Australian team’s closest match to an Ashes series, former Australia captain Steve Waugh said, “I believe it’s a terrific initiative. Waugh participated in seven Test series against India, three of which he led.

For the Ashes trophy, Australia and England frequently face off across five Test matches. India will play Australia in a series that will consist of five Test matches, similar to how they played England in prior years across five home and away matches.

According to a recent article in The Australian, “It is a benefit for Australia, which is due to begin serious negotiations on another broadcast deal,” the expansion has a financial component.

The four Test matches are reportedly worth $400 million to Cricket Australia under the most recent TV agreement, which is one of the reasons the idea of the tourists departing in the middle of the 2020–21 season was so unsettling. The broadcasting income would increase dramatically with an additional Test match versus India every four years.

Various boards are putting the finishing touches on the following cycle of the FTP, which will go into effect following the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June 2023.

At the next International Cricket Council (ICC) annual convention in Birmingham, it is anticipated that it will be approved.

Only until the FTP is made public will India’s bilateral matches be known, however it is assumed that the redesigned series would begin in late 2024, when India will travel to Australia for a bilateral series.

Five Tests will be played between the two nations not for the first time. India has played three five-Test series in Australia, with the most recent being in 1991–1992, which Australia won 4-0.

India hosted Australia for five games in 1959 and 1969, and for six Test matches in the 1979–1980 series. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is currently held by India, who memorably won it in 2020–21.

Part of the current WTC, the four-Test 2023 home series is essential to both clubs’ hopes of advancing to the championship game. Prior to that, the Australian side will travel to India for six white-ball matches (three One Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals) in the months of September and October.

The teams’ participation in the ODIs has not yet been decided, though, because the T20 World Cup is in October.

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