Zimbabwe tour of England 2025 | ENG vs ZIM Match Preview: England start summer with one-off Test against Zimbabwe

‌England will start their summer with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday. The four-day game will mark the start of England’s season that will also have India travelling to play five Tests in June with the white-ball series against West Indies scheduled in between.

The hosts have already named their team for the Zimbabwe game with the Ben Stokes-led team handing a much-awaited debut to pacer Sam Cook. The 27-year-old Essex pacer has played 89 First-Class games with an impressive tally of 321 wickets at an average of 19.85 and a strike rate of 45.2. Cook will be joined by pacers Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue, who had an excellent start to his Test career picking up 10 wickets from his first two Tests in 2023 before missing out due to injury. Skipper Ben Stokes and off-spinner Shoaib Bashir complete the bowling line-up for the hosts while the batting wears a settled look with Joe Root and Harry Brook looking to continue their excellent form from the last season. The pair were first and fourth respectively with opener Ben Duckett third in the list of top run-getters in the last World Test Championship cycle with 1968, 1463 and 1470 runs.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe have named a 15-member squad for the England Test with Craig Ervine at the helm. The visitors come into the Test match after a two-match series in Bangladesh ended 1-1. Pacer Blessing Muzarabani was their best bowler in the series picking up 10 wickets from two matches while Sean Williams and Brian Bennet finished on top of the run charts in Bangladesh. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Ben Curran, who will represent Zimbabwe and will play his first match against England, where his brothers Sam Curran and Tom Curran ply their trade.

Form Guide

ENG Form: LLWWL

ZIM Form: DLLWL

ENG vs ZIM head-to-head in Tests

England are unbeaten against Zimbabwe in the longer format with three wins and three draws from six outings. The sides’ last meeting, however, came 22 years back with England thrashing Zimbabwe by an innings and 69 runs at Chester-le-Street.

ENG 3-0 ZIM

Pitch and Conditions

Trent Bridge has traditionally favoured the batters and it is expected to continue the same way with England looking to go by their Bazball playbook this summer too. Three of the last five matches have been won by teams batting first with England winning the lone Test chasing in a thrilling match against New Zealand by five wickets, three years ago to signal England’s new approach in the five-day game.

It will be a cloudy day to start off with the sun making its way later in the day and temperatures expected to be around 16 degrees. The unpredictable England weather may be in vogue once again with a 25% chance of rain during play.

Team News

England announced their team a day before the start of the Test match with Sam Cook set to make his debut while Zimbabwe are expected to play the same side that played in the second Test in Bangladesh.

England XI

Ben Stokes (c), Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Sam Cook, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir

Zimbabwe Expected XI

Craig Ervine (c), Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Nick Welch, Sean Williams, Wessly Madhevere, Tafadzwa Tsiga, Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani, Victor Nyauchi

Broadcasting Platforms 

The ENG vs ZIM one-off Test match will be digitally streamed on the SonyLiv and FanCode app and website in India from 3:30 PM IST while Sony Sports Network will be in charge of the live telecast.