This Week in Cricket #160 - The shambles in Noida, Sri Lanka beat England & the Fraser-McGurk question

The Top Order Cricket Podcast

In this episode of the show, we discuss the abandoned Test in Greater Noida between Afghanistan and New Zealand, Sri Lanka’s win against England, India’s squad to face Bangladesh and a the England v Australia bilateral T20 series.

We start the show with a rant about the shambles that saw no play between the Black Caps and Afghanistan, but instead featured cutting up of the outfield, household fans and quite a bit of rain. Could this have been avoided? Or do we chalk it up to unseasonable weather and move on with our lives?

It’s then time to heap praise on Sri Lanka for their comfortable victory in the third Test against England – a result that looked unlikely after a light-affected Day 1. Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis shone with the bat, as well as Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando, in a win that keeps their World Test Championship dreams alive. For England, we ponder whether this was just a bad few days at the office or something more concerning. We discuss Harry Brook, a relatively inexperienced seam attack and whether Dan Lawrence will ever play for England again.

To round out the show, we look at India’s squad for their upcoming Test series against Bangladesh, as well as a few over-reactions after Game 1 of the England v Australia T20 series (which Liam Livingstone must have heard before Game 2!).

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Thanks for listening.

0:00 Intro

1:05 The shambles in Noida - should we have seen some cricket between Afghanistan & the Black Caps?

9:00 Sri Lanka beat England - did England get complacent?

14:15 Did Sri Lanka find an effective counter to Bazball?

18:35 Sri Lanka outbowled England

23:10 Shoaib Bashir chat

26:40 Will Dan Lawrence play Test cricket again?

29:35 Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis were excellent

31:50 England v Australia first T20 - Jake Fraser-McGurk and Liam Livingstone in the spotlight

44:10 India v Bangladesh - Can in-form Bangladesh give India's balanced squad a run for their money?

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