While the eyes of the world are on the Indian Premier League (IPL), the England Test season kicked off on Thursday (May 22) as the Ben Stokes-led side took the field in a one-off Test match against Zimbabwe at the Trent Bridge Stadium in Nottingham, which is their last red-ball international match before the marquee five-match Test series against India from June 20.

However, the England-Zimbabwe test match is a rare one as it is not part of the World Test Championship (WTC). This is also the first instance of the two teams facing each other in a Test since 2003. Moreover, the match is not a regular five-day Test match and instead is a four-day match. Despite having one day less, it does count as an offical Test match.

While in the early years of Test cricket, since the first match in 1877, a lot of three, four, and six day matches were held. However, a match between South Africa and Zimbabwe on Boxing Day in 2017 at Port Elizabeth. marked the first four-day Test in 44 years since New Zealand and Pakistan's clash in 1973. This came after ICC allowed four-day matches to be played in order to encourage more teams to play test matches. England hosted Ireland in a four-day Test in 2019 and 2023.

The rules of a four-day test are significantly different as instead of 90 overs, a mandatory 98 overs have to be bowled in each day. This means that each match is set to have 392 overs instead of 450 in a five-day Test.

Another big chance is in the follow-on rules. In a four-day Test, a team can enforce a follow-on on their opponent if they have a lead of 150 runs instead of 200 runs, which is the case in a five-day test.

A five-day test sees six hours of actions regularly, with each session of three hours each plus the option to add an extra 30 minutes. In a five- day, teams are mandated to play six and a half hours per day while also having the option of adding time.