England cancel West Indies women's Test and switch to home Ashes preparation

England have cancelled their women's Test in the West Indies scheduled for April 2027 and will instead build their red-ball preparation for the Ashes around matches at home, BBC Sport reported. The Caribbean tour will still include three Twenty20 internationals and three one-day internationals, but the Test has been removed from the programme.

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The revised plan includes four red-ball matches in the UK: a three-day game against Australia A and three intra-squad fixtures bringing England's leading players together. A dedicated training camp in Bangalore in January will provide additional preparation. England expect to involve 26 or 27 players across the camps and matches, extending the programme beyond a single first-choice team.

The Ashes Test is scheduled for Headingley from 24 to 27 June 2027 and will carry four points in the multi-format series against Australia. Nat Sciver-Brunt's team have played only one Test since losing by an innings in Melbourne in January 2025. That subsequent appearance ended in a heavy defeat by India at Lord's, according to the BBC report.

ECB chief executive Richard Gould said a 10-day red-ball camp in India, followed by four matches in English conditions, would give head coach Charlotte Edwards and her players the match preparation needed for Australia. He also said the intra-squad approach would help assess England's depth, create opportunities for more players and spread competitive multi-day cricket across a longer period for the wider group.

The cancellation follows discussions about whether the England and Wales Cricket Board might provide financial support to Cricket West Indies to stage the Test. CWI chief executive Chris Dehring had previously told BBC Sport that hosting cricket in the Caribbean was expensive and that assistance from wealthier boards would be welcome. However, the BBC reported that it understood the ECB's decision was unrelated to those financial discussions and was instead driven by performance considerations.

For West Indies, the change removes a scheduled opportunity to return to women's Test cricket. They have not played a Test since 2004, an appearance the BBC described as their only red-ball match in 47 years. Their revised series against England will now be confined to the two white-ball formats.