This Week in Cricket #62 - The Hundred begins, West Indies v Australia is confusing and an England v India Test preview

The Top Order Cricket Podcast

This week on the show we talk about the start of The Hundred, try to figure out what's real and what's not from the West Indies v Australia matches and look ahead to an intriguing Test series between England and India.

We start by discussing The Hundred as Lippy attempts to understand why the competition appears to be so divisive, realise that cricket is still cricket and cricket is fun to watch, but what's going on with those graphics?!

Then we take another opportunity to quiz Baldy about what's going on with this Australian white-ball side. Are they good? Or not? Have they completely mismanaged their selections and plan for the year? Or not? Or is it way too early to tell? And why can the West Indies score more runs in 20 overs than they can in 50? Raj has the answer, which may have something to do with the Universe Boss Chris Gayle.

We round out the episode by looking ahead to what we hope will be a fascinating Test series between England and India. How excited are the spinners among us about watching Ravi Ashwin for five Tests? How many runs will Joe Root need to score for England to have a chance? How will Ollie Robinson fit into England's bowling attack? There's Broad and Anderson v Kohli, Sharma, Pant and co, and optimistic Binksy makes an appearance during prediction time.

If you enjoyed our latest episode - the introduction to our Top Order Podcast Test Cricket Hall of Fame, keep an eye out for the next instalment - where we introduce players 100-96 and debate their inclusion. It's not far away. If you haven't listened yet, there's plenty of time to catch up, but we suggest you do so as these episodes will become a regular feature as we countdown from 100-1. You can also find extensive write ups about the Hall of Fame on our recently revamped website.

You can also dip back into our recent interviews - Jarrod Kimber takes us on a deep dive of New Zealand Cricket on and off the field, and evaluates the World Test Championship as a format and Tim Southee talked about the pride the Black Caps felt after finally getting their hands on another ICC trophy.

As always, we love hearing from our listeners, so please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or subscribe on all our channels (@toporderpod on Twitter and Facebook, & @thetoporderpodcast on Instagram) and a (5-Star!) review at your favourite podcast provider. It really helps others find the show.

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Thanks for listening.