What's Going On in Cricket Right Now: Your Late-July 2026 Catch-Up

Cricket doesn’t really have an off-season anymore — here’s a fast catch-up on everything happening across the sport right now, from Associate nations World Cup qualifying to three overlapping franchise leagues.

Nepal’s rough week in Utrecht

Nepal came into the 2026 Netherlands Tri-Nation Series on a six-match winning streak and left it winless — beaten twice by Namibia and twice by the Netherlands across four matches in nine days. It’s a real setback for their World Cup League 2 automatic-qualification bid, with a series against Canada and Oman up next as a chance to steady the ship. Full report →

India’s tour of England has two very different halves

England swept the T20I leg 4-0 — a result reportedly serious enough to put head coach Brendon McCullum’s Test future in doubt — but the ODI series has flipped the storyline. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are back in the XI, and Jasprit Bumrah marked his first ODI appearance in 968 days by reaching the rare 150 ODI / 200 Test / 100 T20I wicket treble. Full report →

Before England, India comfortably swept Zimbabwe 3-0 in a T20I series in Harare, with teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi named Player of the Series. Full report →

Three franchise leagues, all live at once

• The Hundred is midway through its 2026 season (through August 16), running a new combined men’s-and-women’s trophy for the first time and a ban on betting sponsors. Full report →
• The Lanka Premier League is closing in on its playoff stage, with four-time defending champions Jaffna Kings chasing an unprecedented fifth straight title ahead of the August 8 final. Full report →

Looking further ahead: Ashes 2027

Dates are locked in for a concurrent men’s and women’s Ashes series in England next year, with the men’s opener at Trent Bridge on June 18, 2027 — England’s chance to avenge a 4-1 series loss in Australia. Full report →

The bigger picture

What ties all of this together is how much of the current news cycle is qualification and structural, not just results: Nepal’s League 2 table position, The Hundred’s new trophy format, an Ashes date nearly two years out. That’s the shape of the modern calendar — franchise cricket, international bilateral series and World Cup pathways all running in parallel, all demanding attention at once.

CricLiveOnline will keep this catch-up updated as the picture develops — check back for the next round-up.