England women's cricket competitions 2026

It’s the women’s cricket World Cup this year and England are hosting. What? Yes, we know there was a World Cup last year too but, cricket has many different formats and it can be tricky to keep track.

In 2026, it’s the women’s Twenty20 World Cup and in 2025 it was the ODI World Cup which India won so spectacularly and on home soil. Read on to discover about the different cricket match formats.

Cricket - the basics

Cricket is played between two teams of 11. One is batting and the other is bowling and fielding; and then they swap over. The idea is that the batters achieve more runs than the other team or that the bowlers bowl out all of the opposition.

Cricket terminology

Innings – This is the team’s turn batting. In some formats of the game, a team has one inning and in other formats, they have two. The inning lasts as long as there are players who are not out.

Over - Each bowler bowls six balls in an ‘over.’

Wicket - Batters run along the wicket between the stumps and one length of the wicket is a run. During the game, there is one player stood at each wicket and they run at the same time, past each other so that there is only ever one person standing facing the bowler. The condition of the ground that makes the wicket can be important in how the ball is played, how it bounces in front of the batter.

Cricket scoring

Cricket scoring is a complicated process, but the basics are:

1 run = the player on ‘strike’, the player facing the bowler, running from one wicket to the other.

If they hit the ball across the cricket pitch and it hits or crosses the boundary, they score four runs. If they hit it through the air and across the boundary, that’s six runs.

Fielders may catch the ball and then the batter is out.

Runs are awarded for e.g wide balls too (when the bowler isn’t on target and the batter can’t play the ball.)

Different cricket formats

Twenty20 cricket format

Twenty20, or T20 as it’s sometimes called, refers to a format in which each team has 20 overs to bowl out the other team. It’s fast and furious as batters try to score as many runs as possible and the opposition takes more risks to bowl out the batters. It’s fun to watch.

OD cricket format

OD stands for ‘one day’ and it’s a game of cricket that takes a day. This format has 50 overs for each team so it takes longer. It’s a slower pace and so teams employ different tactics and strategy. An ODI is a ‘one day international’ which means that international teams are playing each other in a 50 over game.

Test match format

A test match takes place over up to five days with no limit on overs. Each team has two innings and the teams tweak their strategy accordingly. In contrast to the Twenty20 format, the match is normally played at a slower pace and some batters will aim to stay in as part of team strategy.

Women’s cricket competitions for England, summer 2026

Women’s English county cricket

Vitality Blast

The Vitality Blast is a Twenty20 format for county teams, divided into two leagues. Its inaugural season was in 2025 when League 1 was made up of the following teams:

Birmingham Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, Blaze Women

Metro Bank One Day competition

This is a one-day match, meaning a 50 over, competition played between county teams. Lancashire won last year in the women’s game and will be looking to repeat that this season. The counties involved are Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Surrey, Somerset, The Blaze, Warwickshire and Yorkshire.

The Hundred

The Hundred is called such because it’s a hundred ball game, it’s as simple as that. It was created in 2021 with the aim of revitalising the game and attracting new fans to the sport. The Hundred has less jargon and colourful kit for each county. A men’s and women’s game is played on the same night with men’s and women’s teams receiving the same prize money.

Women’s international cricket for England, Scotland and Ireland 2026

This year England is hosting the T20 World Cup. The countries competing are England, Australia, India, New Zealand, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A boost for Great British cricket is that Scotland and Ireland have qualified as well, alongside Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

Australia hosted and won the 2022 T20 World Cup with Alyssa Healy scoring a remarkable 170 runs in the final against England.

England will prepare for the World Cup with some ODIs and T20s against New Zealand and India while Scotland will play the Netherlands and Bangladesh ahead of the World Cup competition. Ireland have played numerous teams already in 2026.

Surrey women won the Vitality Blast 2025 credit Alamy

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Caroline KingsMay 4, 2026CRICKET WORLD CUP, CRICKET AND GIRLS, CRICKET, WOMENS CRICKET, GIRLS CRICKETComment