Major honours
The national team of the country that invented the sport, and the team that has played more Tests than any other. The Marylebone Cricket Club, founded in 1787, and its home ground Lord's, have long been where cricket's laws and authority reside, and England was Australia's opponent in the first-ever Test at Melbourne in 1877. For a long time, though, England trailed Australia in career results and trailed even further at world tournaments. After losing three World Cup finals in 1979, 1987 and 1992, England finally won the title in 2019 at Lord's, tying New Zealand on runs and again in the Super Over, before taking the trophy on boundary count. England also won the T20 World Cup in 2010 and 2022, holding both white-ball world titles simultaneously in 2022. Since 2022, an aggressive Test approach nicknamed Bazball, built around coach Brendon McCullum and captains Joe Root and Ben Stokes, has redefined how fast a five-day match can be scored. James Anderson's 700 Test wickets stand as an unmatched achievement for a fast bowler.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
The Ashes against Australia is the heaviest series on England's sporting calendar; reclaiming it 2-1 in 2005, after 18 years without it, marked the start of a Test cricket revival. Test series against India have also grown steadily in crowd and broadcast scale.