Cricket formats explained: Test, ODI, T20, T10 and The Hundred
A plain guide to how long each cricket format lasts, how many overs or balls each side faces, and which major tournaments use them.
Cricket is played in several formats, and the main difference is how long a match lasts. Here is how each format works and which events use it.
Test cricket
A Test match is played over up to five days, and each team bats for up to two innings. Some Tests finish sooner: the first Test of the 2025-26 Ashes, at Perth, was over inside two days.
Two events covered here are played in this format. The Ashes is a five-Test series between England and Australia, first played in 1882-83. The ICC World Test Championship is a league of nine teams, in which a win earns 12 points, a tie 6 and a draw 4, with the top two meeting in a five-day final that has a reserve day.
One Day Internationals
An ODI gives each side 50 overs. The men's Cricket World Cup, the Women's Cricket World Cup and the Champions Trophy are all ODI tournaments. The Asia Cup alternates between ODI and T20I formats; the 2025 edition was T20I and the 2027 edition is scheduled to return to ODIs.
The length has changed over time. The first three men's World Cups, from 1975, were played over 60 overs per side, and the 1987 tournament was the first to use 50 overs. Early Women's World Cups, such as the 1993 final, were also 60 overs per side.
Twenty20
In a T20 match each team faces 20 overs. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup, first held in 2007, uses the format, as do the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash League and the Pakistan Super League. The Women's T20 World Cup, won by Australia in 2026, is played in the same format. Tied T20 World Cup matches are decided by a super over.
Leagues add their own rules. The IPL allows each team an impact player substitute, and the BBL has used a Power Surge, a two-over second powerplay, since 2020-21.
T10
T10 shortens the game to 10 overs a side. The Abu Dhabi T10, also called the T10 League, has been played in the United Arab Emirates since 2017. Its next edition is scheduled for 7 to 20 November 2026.
The Hundred
The Hundred, run by the England and Wales Cricket Board, uses 100 balls per innings. Overs are five balls long and no bowler may bowl more than four overs, or 20 balls. There are separate men's and women's competitions of eight teams, with matches staged as double-headers.
