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History will be made in the 2025 T20 Blast as women’s teams have officially become “fully aligned” with the men’s game for the first time.

This season will include 52 double bills of men’s and women’s matches played back-to-back, of which all 18 first-class counties will host at least one and nearly 30 venues in total will see 20-over cricket.

Blast Off weekend will kick off the new-look competition, beginning on Thursday in Manchester, where 2015 winners Lancashire Lightning host 2018 winners Worcestershire Rapids, and Lord’s, where Middlesex and Sussex Sharks meet in a double bill.

Defending men’s champions Gloucestershire begin with a home game against Kent at Bristol on Friday.

Nottinghamshire’s women’s side will continue to play as The Blaze, having beaten South East Stars to win the Charlotte Edwards Cup final last June before the women’s domestic game changed for this season.

They also start on Friday against the Bears, who have dropped Birmingham from their name, as part of a double header at Trent Bridge.

Blast Men’s Competition:

North Group: Bears, Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Notts Outlaws, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire Vikings.

South Group: Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire Hawks, Kent Spitfires, Middlesex, Somerset, Sussex Sharks, Surrey.

Blast Women’s Competition:

Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey, The Blaze.

Blast Women’s League 2:

North Group: Derbyshire Falcons, Leicestershire Foxes, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire.

South Group: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Middlesex, Sussex Sharks.

Gloucestershire won their maiden T20 Blast title in glorious style last September as they beat holders Somerset, comprehensively outplaying their West Country rivals to claim their first trophy in nine years.

Openers Cameron Bancroft, up against his former county, and Miles Hammond both hit half-centuries at Edgbaston as they won by eight wickets with 31 balls to spare.

After winning just one of their opening five matches, Gloucestershire came from nowhere to squeeze through in fourth in the Southern Group and then followed it up by beating North Group winners Birmingham Bears in the quarter-final, the third straight season the Bears had fallen in the last eight, on their way to claiming their first knockout trophy since beating Surrey in the One-Day Cup at Lord’s in 2015.

Gloucestershire became the 14th side to win the T20 – leaving Yorkshire, Durham, Derbyshire and Glamorgan as the only four sides not to have done so in its 22 editions.

Tykes coach Anthony McGrath hopes the start of this year’s T20 Blast, with Northants first up at Headingley on Friday, can bring a change of fortune after a torrid start to their campaign in Division One of the County Championship.

“It’s a new competition, and it is about starting well,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

“We have done a lot of planning, but again, that counts for nothing; it is the performances. I’m looking forward to seeing how we react on Friday evening.

“This group is dying to do well, but you need more than that. At the highest levels of sport, it is not about skill; it is about what’s in your head.

A number of international stars are set to line up in the women’s competition.

Australian batter Laura Harris will play for Bears, who have lost Amy Jones to The Blaze and Eve Jones to Thunder this season, but the spin of captain Georgia Davis might again prove crucial to their fortunes.

Durham have signed New Zealand international Suzie Bates to complement a line-up featuring England players Mady Villiers, skipper Hollie Armitage, Lauren Filer and Bess Heath.

Essex have brought in Australian all-rounder Maddie Penna and evergreen keeper Lauren Winfield-Hill from Yorkshire for the Blast and can rely upon captain Grace Scrivens but will miss strike-bowler Sophie Munro through injury.

Hampshire Hawks have seen a number of players depart this season, but skipper Georgia Adams has Australia international Charli Knott and England’s Maia Bouchier at her disposal, while Ellyse Perry is set to arrive in July for the final six games of the campaign and Finals Day, should the Hawks get there.

Lancashire Thunder became the first winners of the new Vitality T20 Women’s County Cup with a 32-run victory over Surrey in the final at Taunton on Sunday, with England’s Sophie Ecclestone claiming 4-12 to smother the Surrey reply.

Captain Ellie Threlkeld has brought in batter Eve Jones, quick bowler Grace Potts and spinner Darcey Carter to bolster her ranks, while Australian batter Katie Mack will play the first three games of the campaign before being replaced by compatriot, superstar leg-spinner Alana King, for the remainder of the campaign.

Sophie Luff bolstered her Somerset line-up with the addition of England all-rounder Charlie Dean before the season, and Australian leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington is also back, having played last season under their old Western Storm identity, boosting a squad which already boasts former England skipper Heather Knight.

Bryony Smith might have seen her Surrey side – formerly South East Stars – fall short in the County Cup final, but with England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Sophia Dunkley and Alice Davidson-Richards in her squad and Australian bat Grace Harris arriving in June, hopes will be high of challenging for a fourth final in five years in this competition.

A host of global white-ball talent will be jetting over to take part in the men’s Blast.

North Group

Bears were dealt a blow on the eve of the tournament as Beau Webster will now miss out after being called up by Australia for the World Test Championship, while Hasan Ali will be unavailable for the first three games after being given a central contract by Pakistan.

Northamptonshire have signed Australian leg-spinner Lloyd Pope after countryman Ashton Agar was ruled out through injury. Pope was named in the team of the tournament in the Big Bash earlier this year, while South Africa batter Matthew Breetzke is also back.

Durham have signed New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham. The left-hander is a veteran of 83 T20 internationals and 76 ODI games for the Black Caps.

Neesham, who also bowls right-arm seam, will play for his sixth county after previous stints with Derbyshire, Essex, Kent, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

Durham have also signed New Zealand seamer Zak Foulkes, who was with Bears last summer, for the group stages, still have South Africans David Bedingham and Codi Yusuf around and taken Somerset bowling all-rounder Kasey Aldridge on loan for a month.

Australian paceman Ben Dwarshuis has returned to Worcestershire Rapids, having taken 15 wickets in 2021, and will be joined by Kiwi seamer Jacob Duffy for the first eight games, while Leicestershire can call on Dutch all-rounder Logan van Beek and will welcome Pakistan’s Shan Masood, formerly of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, for the Blast.

Lancashire have signed Australian all-rounder Ashton Turner, previously of Durham, to join compatriot Chris Green, while Notts Outlaws have brought in their compatriot Daniel Sams, who has spent the last three domestic seasons with Essex, scoring more than 2,000 runs and taking 214 wickets in T20 cricket, and veteran Aussie all-rounder Moises Henriques, who has previously played for Surrey and Glamorgan.

England batter Alex Hales will not, however, feature this summer.

The 36-year-old is the club’s all-time T20 run-scorer with 4,285, and he has won five titles across different formats, having made his debut in the format 17 years ago.

He will instead represent the Knight Riders franchise in both Major League Cricket and the Caribbean Premier League.

Yorkshire have signed New Zealand quick Will O’Rourke and Australian all-rounder Will Sutherland for the group stage while Derbyshire can call on Australian batter Caleb Jewell and teenage Afghan spinner Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, while Kiwi quick Blair Tickner is also around for the group stages.

South Group

Australia batter D’Arcy Short has joined defending champions Gloucestershire.

The left-hander, who can also bowl spin, has played for his country in both white-ball formats and has twice been named ‘Player of the Tournament’ in Australia’s Big Bash. Short joins fellow countryman Cameron Bancroft with The Shire.

Somerset have brought back Australian seamer Riley Meredith, who took 14 wickets at an average of 22.78 as Somerset reached the final last season, and welcome back New Zealand’s Matt Henry, who was the leading wicket-taker in the 2023 Blast with 31 and was player of the match in the final as Somerset went on to win the trophy.

Essex have re-signed Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Amir. The 33-year-old, who previously played for the club from 2017 to 2019, has taken 371 wickets in 322 T20 games around the world and will join South African Simon Harmer in the Essex ranks.

Hampshire Hawks have young South African batters Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis to call on, along with the return of James Vince to look forward to.

Surrey have signed Kiwi white-ball skipper Mitchell Santner for the campaign, where he will link up with fellow New Zealander Nathan Smith, while neighbours Middlesex can boast Kane Williamson in their ranks for 10 group stage games and also have Ireland quick Josh Little to call on.

Glamorgan have signed Australian all-rounder Hayden Kerr, who played for Derbyshire in 2022, until the end of July and can call upon the evergreen South African Colin Ingram, while Sussex Sharks have Australians Daniel Hughes and Nathan McAndrew among their ranks and might also opt to utilise their compatriot seamer Gurinder Sandhu, who will remain with the club for red-ball cricket after the Blast.

Ella Morris will miss Euro 2025 due to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury she received while training with England.

Five weeks before the Lionesses begin their European Championship defense in Switzerland, the 22-year-old has surgery to repair her right knee injury.

For the upcoming Nations League games against Portugal and Switzerland, Morris had been first called up from the Under-23s squad.

Laura Blindkilde Brown, 21, has received her third senior call-up and will replace her in St George’s Park’s 26-man squad.

The English support team will keep in touch with her and the club, according to a statement. Everyone involved in the Lionesses wishes Ella the best of luck with her recovery.

After unexpectedly retiring on Tuesday, England are already without Mary Earps.

Fifa is funding research to understand how hormonal changes during menstrual cycles might be influencing the rise in women’s football’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

Women’s football has two to six times more of ACL injuries than men, and about two-thirds of them occur when there is no physical contact.