Cricket has evolved massively between 2019 and 2025, with the shift most visible in the number of all-format international players in the two years.
That cricket has evolved over the years is hardly in dispute, but pinning down exactly how that change has unfolded is less simple. Since the pandemic, the game has become busier and more crowded: more T20 leagues, heavier financial investment, and calendars packed tightly enough to ensure that playing everything is no longer the default setting for elite players.
The shift is most clearly visible not in how the game is played, but in how players choose to engage with it. Choice, once a luxury, now sits at the centre of modern careers. Sudden retirements, carefully managed returns, firm decisions on which tournaments to prioritise, NOC tussles, and an increased focus on workload management have become part of the sport’s everyday rhythm.
To trace how this change has taken shape, this piece looks back to 2019, when international cricket still held clear primacy, and sets it against 2025, a year defined by greater deliberation. Viewed together, the contrast helps explain how the all-format cricketer has shifted from being the norm in the international game.
We have excluded players from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ireland, and Zimbabwe from this analysis to keep it focused on countries where the sport has expanded more rapidly.
How many cricketers played all formats for different teams in 2019?
Across the eight teams considered, a total of 345 international matches were played in 2019, involving 300 different players. Of these, 68 featured in all three formats at least once, accounting for just under 23 per cent of the total pool. Pakistan stood out within this group, with roughly a third of their players appearing across formats during the year.
That volume, however, did not translate into success. Pakistan played 41 matches across formats in 2019 and won only 11, finishing with a win-loss ratio of 0.407, the lowest among the eight teams analysed. Part of this struggle can be traced to a reluctance to narrow roles, with several players stretched across Tests, ODIs and T20Is despite likely being ill-suited to the demands of multiple formats. Australia offer a sharp contrast in this regard: With only 17 per cent of their players appearing in all three formats, they recorded a win-loss ratio of 3.444, comfortably the best of the group. The difference is interesting: while one side looked forward, embraced specialisation and reaped the award, the other persisted with a less defined approach, and paid for it in results.
How did it change in 2025?
The table highlights a clear shift in approach across international cricket. Australia have largely continued their practice of aligning players with formats that suit them best, but other teams are catching up. India and Pakistan, once among the most resistant to change, have now moved decisively toward distinct squads for each format. India experimented by including Shubman Gill in T20Is, only to drop him later, while Pakistan made the bold choice to step away from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, long considered the faces of their cricket. Though Babar has since returned, the initial move demonstrated a willingness to prioritise the best XI over reputations.
England, in contrast, have taken the opposite path. Where only 18 per cent of their cricketers featured in all three formats in 2019, that figure has risen to 32 per cent as they search for consistency. The 2019 ODI world champions, once at the forefront of white-ball innovation, appear to be grappling with talent identification and building a sustainable roadmap for the future.
New Zealand, amid a transition following the decision of several senior players to opt out of their national contracts, are experimenting with their available talent, while South Africa’s high number of multi-format players largely reflects absences during the Zimbabwe tour. With these caveats in mind, the actual number of players consistently active across formats - those who regularly feature rather than appear sporadically - remains far smaller, something we will explore below.
‘Actual’ all-format players in 2019 vs 2025
It is no longer unusual for teams to test a player who has established themselves in one format in another one, whether due to injury or as a tactical move. In 2019, of the 68 players who appeared in all three formats, 61 played at least ten international matches. Only a small group - Iftikhar Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Temba Bavuma, Ben Foakes, Todd Astle, Henry Nicholls and Alzarri Joseph - played fewer than ten. This reflects how teams were still willing to invest time in seeing whether players could sustain themselves across formats.
Overall, 51 players from the eight teams under consideration featured in at least 25 international matches. Of these, 15 had “meaningful” exposure across formats – defined here as playing a minimum of five Tests, ten ODIs and five T20Is.
By 2025, that number had reduced. Of the 46 players who reached the 25-match mark, only ten played five Tests, five ODIs and ten T20Is (the difference in ODIs and T20Is from 2019 and 2025 is based on the format that is now played more often): Salman Ali Agha, Harry Brook, Roston Chase, Shai Hope, Brandon King, Devon Conway, Josh Inglis, Rachin Ravindra, Brydon Carse and Gill.
Even within that group, the decreasing scope of a career across all formats is evident. Gill, for instance, no longer features in India’s T20I plans, and three of the ten players come from the West Indies, more reflective of the severe shortage of red-ball players at their disposal. Inglis isn't a first-choice starter for Australia either, which further reduces the number to actual all-format players.
The contrast with 2019 is stark. Then, the list of all-format regulars, including Pat Cummins, Jonny Bairstow, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Ross Taylor, Babar Azam and Rohit Sharma, suggested a greater sense of continuity, with roughly one such player anchoring each team.
This shift cannot be attributed solely to the rise of T20 leagues. The current generation of senior players is older and more selective about where they expend their bodies, while younger players are increasingly being groomed with specific formats in mind. Another factor could be the increased frequency of ICC events.
In 2019, planning across formats was still relatively linear, with teams primarily building towards a single 50-over World Cup, while T20Is often remained secondary in terms of long-term vision. The current cycle is far more compressed. There has been a men’s ICC event every year since 2021, and teams need to plan for each event more. This has encouraged short-term specialisation over long-term multi-format development, with players selected to peak for specific events rather than groomed patiently across all three formats.
As a result, teams may find themselves rebuilding in one format while surging ahead in another, as Pakistan have done in T20Is. In that context, format-specific squads are no longer a compromise, but a logical outcome of how the modern game is structured.
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