The first evidence of an England team occurred in 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team which consisted of eleven gentlemen from any part of England, exclusive of Kent. This team played against 'the Unconquerable County' of Kent and lost by a 'very few notches'. Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of the century.

In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven, this team would eventually compete against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1857 to 1866. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season, if judged by the quality of the players.

The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England going to North America. This team comprised of six players from the All-England Eleven and six from the United All-England Eleven, and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned to Australia and New Zealand with the inaugural tour of Australia taking place in 1861-2. England would visit New Zealand in 1863–64 with the tour being the first to be organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). Most tours prior to 1877 were played "against odds", meaning the opposing team was permitted to have more than 11 players (usually 22) in order to make a more even contest. As a result these matches were not considered first-class matches and were organised purely for commercial reasons.

James Lillywhite led the England team which had sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876. They would play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11 a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and came to be regarded as the first Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. The first Test match in English soil occurred in 1880 with England winning this series 1–0. England would lose their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with the Sporting Times famously printing an obituary on English cricket:

As a result of this loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes". England won the series 2–1 and Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or even a woman's veil. And so The Ashes series was born. England would dominate many of these early contests with Australia winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884–98. During this period England played their first Test match against South Africa in 1889 at Port Elizabeth. The 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. It comprised three active players: Lord Hawke, W.G. Grace and HW Bainbridge who was the captain of Warwickshire. Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played.

The turn of the century saw England struggle as they lost four of the eight Ashes series between 1900 and 1914. They lost their first series against South Africa in 1908 4–1 as England's batting faltered.

The 1912 season saw England take part in a unique experiment. A nine Test triangular tournament involving England, South Africa and Australia was set-up. Hampered by a very wet summer and player disputes the tournament was considered a failure with The Daily Telegraph stating:

With Australia sending a weakened team and the South African bowlers being ineffective England dominated the tournament winning four of their six matches. The Australia v South Africa match, at Lord's, was notable for a visit by King George V, the first time a reigning monarch had watched Test cricket. England would go on one more tour against South Africa before the outbreak of World War I.

England's first match after the war was in the 1920–21 season against Australia. Still feeling the effects of the war England went down to a series of crushing defeats, and suffered their first whitewash losing the series 5–0. Six Australians scored hundreds while Mailey spun out 36 English batsmen. Things were no better in the next few Ashes series losing the 1921 Ashes series 3–0 and the 1924–5 Ashes 4–1.

England's fortunes were to change in 1926 as they regained the Ashes and were a formidable team during this period dispatching Australia 4–1 in the 1928–29 Ashes tour. On the same year the West Indies became the fourth nation to be granted Test status and played their first game against England. England won each of these three Tests by an innings, and a view was expressed in the press that their elevation had proved a mistake although Learie Constantine did the double on the tour.

In the 1929–30 season England went on two concurrent tours with one team going to New Zealand (who were granted Test status earlier that year) and the other to the West Indies. Despite sending two separate teams England won both tours beating New Zealand 1–0 and the West Indies 2–1.

Wikipedia