Australia will play back-to-back pink-ball Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand in a marathon international cricket season spanning almost five months and wrapping up next March, the latest finish since the 1970s.

Brisbane’s Gabba hosts the first of two Tests against Pakistan from November 21, followed by a day-nighter at Adelaide Oval, the schedule released on Tuesday (7th May) showed.

Australia then face New Zealand at Perth Stadium for the second day-night match before the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne and finally Sydney. With only five Tests, Canberra and Hobart miss out.

The games will be the first on Australian soil that count towards the inaugural ICC Test Championship, where points are awarded to the nine countries taking part.

Ordinarily, one-day internationals are played at home in January, but Australia will instead be in India to fulfil an obligation under the Future Tours Program.

Cricket Australia wanted to find an alternative date for the series, but India reportedly refused to budge, meaning three one-dayers against New Zealand will instead start in March, extending the season to its latest finish in 41 years.

The last time the season ended so late was in 1979 when Australia hosted Pakistan for a Test in Perth.

“Scheduling international cricket is challenging in that nine of the 10 major cricketing countries have seasons similar to ours,” said Cricket Australia’s head of operations Peter Roach.

“So working with them to find space in the calendar to fulfil our obligations to the ICC Future Tours Program is a juggling act.

 “The long-range Future Tours Program had three separate limited-overs series scheduled between India, New Zealand and Australia. When the countries started working through the detail, it was clear that there was not enough space for each series at the proposed times.  

“Cricket Australia took the position that while January was our preference for these ODI matches, there are times we need to honour our commitments to work in the greater context of international cricket scheduling. We evaluated different options for an alternative and saw the most value in the March opportunity to extend our window in the traditional cricket season.”

The southern-hemisphere summer action opens on October 27 with the first of three Twenty20s against Sri Lanka before three more T20s against Pakistan.

Australia’s women host Sri Lanka in a T20 and one-day series, before a tri-series against England and India ahead of the T20 World Cup on home territory in February.

Tests

November 21-25 - Pakistan at Brisbane 

November 29-December 3 - Pakistan at Adelaide (day/night)

December 12-16 - New Zealand at Perth (day/night)

December 26-30 - New Zealand at Melbourne

January 3-7 - New Zealand at Sydney

One-day internationals

March 13 - New Zealand at Sydney

March 15 - New Zealand at Sydney

March 20 - New Zealand at Hobart

Twenty20 internationals

October 27 - Sri Lanka at Adelaide

October 30 - Sri Lanka at Brisbane

November 1 - Sri Lanka at Melbourne 

November 3 - Pakistan at Sydney

November 5 - Pakistan at Canberra

November 8 - Pakistan at Perth