The traditional five-day Test, which has been a feature of the English summer for nearly 70 years, will end in 2020 if the England & Wales Cricket Board successfully argues for the introduction of four-day matches.

The ECB is leading the push for Test matches to be reduced to four days after the 2019 Ashes summer, believing it is the best way to breathe new life into the game’s oldest format and is confident it has the support of broadcasters and host grounds.

A four-day Test would start in England half an hour earlier at 10.30am to give teams more time to bowl the increased number of overs in a day and with all venues now having floodlights, play would be extended where possible.

Sources have told Telegraph Sport the ECB will put its weight behind the switch to four-day Tests at the next board meeting of the International Cricket Council in New Zealand in October, which will discus the ongoing restructuring of the game and introduction of a Test championship in 2020.

The ECB’s support for four-day Test cricket will alarm traditionalists, who already feel the game is being squeezed by too much Twenty20 with the introduction of a new league in England in two years’ time.