The Top Order Cricket Podcast · The Top Order Podcast

This Week in Cricket #196: Black Caps v India, T20 World Cup squad & the NZ20

·1 hr 8 min·1 clip

The Top Order is back on New Zealand cricket after a long Ashes detour. That delay is part of the point here. The hosts have finally got room to catch up. They open by touching on the India conversation before moving on. Then the named T20 World Cup squad takes over the discussion. The squad had landed while the Ashes were on, so the panel is doing the catch-up work in real time. There are surprises in the list, and there are also the familiar omissions that always stir things up. Tim Robinson is the name that keeps coming back. He has had a good 12 months for New Zealand, even so Finn Allen's return changes the shape of the top order. Mark Chapman is treated as a different kind of player rather than a simple like-for-like replacement. That role question matters more than a straight popularity contest. The hosts keep coming back to roles. Neesham becomes the other major discussion point. His T20 numbers are discussed plainly, including the lack of a New Zealand fifty and the modest average. The stats do not make a flattering case, even if there are different ways to read them. From there, the episode settles into the sort of conversation that cricket listeners know well: selections, roles, form, and the arguments that sit between them. It is a brisk panel check-in for anyone who wants New Zealand cricket treated as a live selection problem rather than a finished story.

As heard by us

A sharp New Zealand cricket catch-up that treats selection as an argument, not a slogan.

The Top Order offers a tidy New Zealand cricket catch-up, moving through the Black Caps, the T20 World Cup squad, and the selection calls around India in a brisk panel flow.

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Why you'd press play

Black Caps squad talk, India detours, and NZ T20 selection arguments without the fluff.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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