This Week in Cricket #172: Jos Buttler's role, Australia v Sri Lanka preview, the WAshes & NZ in the BBL?

The Top Order Cricket Podcast

In this episode of the Top Order Podcast, Binksy, Jamie, Baldy and Stu discuss some of the major talking points from the past week, including the England v India T20 series, Australia's dominance of the WAshes, whether there should be NZ teams in the BBL and a look ahead to Australia's Test tour to Sri Lanka.

We open the show by discussing the first two T20s between England and India, mainly from an England point of view aside from a SRH fan club shout out for Abhishek Sharma. We talk about closers, Jos Buttler's role and England's reliance on Adil Rashid.

From there we move to the Women's Ashes, which have been one-way traffic so far as Australia continue their dominant run that looks to be extending for yet another year on the international stage. Staying in Australia, we also talk about recent discussions in New Zealand about getting some Kiwi sides into the BBL. Would this be good for the competition? For NZ Cricket? For anyone?

To round out the show, we look ahead to Australia's upcoming Test tour to Sri Lanka. With injury concerns on both sides and World Test Championship final spots basically secured, how much does this series actually matter? We talk about whether Australia will shuffle the likes of Travis Head and Usman Khawaja, the role Scott Boland could play in Sri Lankan conditions, what we might see from newcomers like Sam Konstas, Beau Webster and Cooper Connolly and Sri Lanka making the most of the Galle fortress.

We'll be back in your feed again next week with our regular This Week in Cricket show. Until then please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or subscribe on all our channels (@toporderpod on Twitter & Facebook, and @thetoporderpodcast on Instagram & YouTube) and a (5-Star!) review at your favourite podcast provider, or tell a friend to download. It really helps others find the show and is the best thing you can do to support us. You can also find all our written content, including our Hall of Fame series, at our website.

You can also dip back into our guest episodes - including conversations with Mike Hesson, Shane Bond and Mike Hussey, current players such as Matt Henry, Sophie Devine and Ish Sodhi, coaches Gary Stead, Jeetan Patel and Luke Wright, as well as Barry Richards, Frankie Mackay, Bharat Sundaresan and many more fascinating people from all across the cricketing world. And if you'd like to reach out to us with feedback, questions or guest suggestions, get in touch at [e-mail].

Thanks for listening.

0:00 Intro

1:35 England v India T20s - early impressions for England

6:55 Abhishek Sharma excitement & India's T20 dominance

8:10 England's finishers

12:15 The WAshes - Australia's dominance against England

24:00 Should there be NZ teams in the BBL?

39:30 Australia v Sri Lanka Test preview

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