Opportunity abounds for Aussie hopefuls in 2025-26 domestic summer

New South Wales fans will be forced to be patient before they see Ellyse Perry back in sky blue, with a busy international schedule likely to render Australia’s top female players unavailable for most, if not all of the 2025-26 domestic season.

CA today revealed the full domestic schedule for the 2025-26 summer, including both the second edition of the T20 Spring Challenge and the Women's National Cricket League.

View the full T20 Spring Challenge schedule here

View the full 2025-26 WNCL schedule here 

The WNCL will begin on September 24 when Western Australia host Queensland in a day-night clash at the WACA Ground, while other first-round match-ups will see Victoria host NSW and South Australia play Tasmania.

But superstar allrounder Perry, who departed Victoria to re-join her native NSW earlier this year, will not be available to meet her former team with the first two WNCL rounds, held in the lead-up to Weber WBBL|11, coinciding with the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in India.

The WNCL season will resume after the WBBL on January 6, with three rounds to be played before Australia’s sole home international series of the summer, a multi-format showdown against India that begins on February 15.

However, few nationally-contracted players are expected to be available for those rounds due to the Women’s Premier League in India. No dates or squads for the 2026 WPL have been confirmed but it will move into the earlier January-February slot from next season onwards.

In 2025, there were just two fit and available CA-contracted players who did not travel to India for the franchise competition.

The fifth and sixth WNCL rounds will run alongside the multi-format series against India, which culminates in the day-night WACA Test from March 6-9.

The final round will be played from March 12-15 followed by the final on Saturday, March 21.

However, the majority of the Aussie players will likely remain unavailable, with a multi-format tour of West Indies pencilled in for March-April following the conclusion of the India series.

Meanwhile, aspiring Big Bash players will again get a chance to put forward their cases for the remaining spots on WBBL lists when the T20 Spring Challenge begins on October 21.

The nine-team T20 competition – which was introduced last season to ensure there would be no overall reduction in women's domestic games following the shortening of the WBBL – features teams aligned with the eight Big Bash clubs along with the ACT.

The tournament will be played entirely in Sydney and will begin with four games on the same day, as Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes play at North Sydney Oval, followed by Sydney Thunder v ACT Meteors at the same ground. Melbourne Renegades will play Brisbane Heat at Cricket Central, followed by Adelaide Strikers v Melbourne Stars.

Each team will play four matches before the top four play off in the semi-finals and final.

All 18 regular season games will be played across seven days, before the semi-finals on Wednesday, October 29 and the final on Thursday, October 30. All finals games will be held at Cricket NSW's Cricket Central homebase in Silverwater.

The other venues included in the schedule are Drummoyne Oval and Blacktown International Sports Park.

The absence of overseas players from the Spring Challenge will create opportunities for others to take on key roles, and for fringe WBBL squad members to impress before WBBL|11 kicks off on November 9.

Last season, Ines McKeon and Charis Bekker both launched themselves into the spotlight playing for the Scorchers in the Spring Challenge, and were subsequently signed by the Stars and Renegades respectively for WBBL|11.

Broadcast and streaming details for all competitions will be confirmed ahead of the season.