War of CricketPlaying Conditions for Men's Test Matches
A men's Test match is still played over up to five days with three two-hour sessions a day — the basic shape this page described in 2008. What has changed since then is almost everything around it: Tests now sit inside the ICC World Test Championship, dismissals can be electronically reviewed, some Tests are played under floodlights with a pink ball, and a concussed player can be substituted mid-match.
What hasn't changed
The core structure survives. Play is scheduled for six hours a day, split into three sessions either side of a 40-minute lunch interval and a 20-minute tea interval. The side batting first that leads by at least 200 runs (150 in a three- or four-day match, 100 in a two-day match, 75 in a one-day match) can enforce the follow-on — and that decision belongs solely to the fielding captain, not a committee of captain, senior players and coach. The minimum over-rate requirement is 90 overs in a day (or 15 an hour) outside the final day. If four completed innings, or three where the follow-on is enforced, fail to produce a winner, the match is drawn.
The World Test Championship
Since August 2019, most bilateral Test series have counted towards the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), a two-year league that gives every Test result context beyond its own series. Nine teams each play six series — three home, three away — and are ranked by Points Percentage: points earned divided by the maximum available (12 points per win, 6 for a tie, 4 for a draw, 0 for a loss, across the number of Tests actually played), which lets the table compare teams even when they play unequal numbers of matches. The top two teams meet in a one-off final.
| Cycle | Final venue | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–2021 | Rose Bowl, Southampton | New Zealand |
| 2021–2023 | The Oval, London | Australia |
| 2023–2025 | Lord's, London | South Africa (maiden title) |
| 2025–2027 | To be confirmed | In progress |
Teams also lose championship points for slow over rates — one point per penalty over incurred, on top of the individual player fines already applied under the Code of Conduct.
The Decision Review System
DRS lets the fielding side or the batter ask the third umpire to reconsider a dismissal decision, using ball-tracking, ultra-edge audio and slow-motion replay. It was trialled in a Test for the first time in 2008 and formally launched by the ICC in November 2009. Under the current WTC playing conditions, each team is allowed up to three unsuccessful player reviews per innings; a review that overturns the on-field call, or is decided on Umpire's Call, does not count against that total. DRS is mandatory in WTC matches, subject to the technology being available at the ground.
Day-night Tests
The ICC cleared the way for floodlit Tests in October 2012, and the first was played between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide Oval on 27 November 2015, using a pink ball rather than the traditional red one, which shows up better under lights. A day-night Test can be scheduled only where the host board and touring board agree, subject to six hours of scheduled play; the format has been used periodically since, mostly in Australia, but has never become the norm.
Concussion substitutes
Since August 2019, a team can request a like-for-like replacement for a player who suffers a concussion during a match, subject to approval by the match referee within 36 hours of the injury. Australia's Marnus Labuschagne was the first concussion substitute in Test history, replacing Steve Smith after he was struck by a Jofra Archer bouncer in the 2019 Ashes Test at Lord's. The replaced player takes no further part in the match once substituted.
Short-pitched bowling
This is one rule that has not changed since 2008: a bowler has been limited to two fast short-pitched deliveries per over in Test cricket since 1994, with a no-ball called for any delivery beyond that limit in an over. The cap is stricter in white-ball cricket — one bouncer per over in Twenty20s.
Related regulations
Umpires enforcing these conditions operate under the ICC Code of Conduct for Match Officials. Rain-affected limited-overs matches, which these conditions do not cover, are decided under the separate Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.