Cricket Beyond Borders

In the third episode, Aryan Surana is joined by his experienced colleagues at Guerilla Cricket for talking about the magnum opus on the horizon - Ashes. We discuss whether Steve Smith representing Sussex is a boon or a bane. Can Ben Stokes' prescription of 'fast and flat' wickets be taken at face value? Is the faith reposed in high-ceiling Zac Crawley misplaced? Will the England captain roll his arm over? The lack thereof may spread the hosts thin as Jack Leach is out injured, Broad-Anderson ought to bowl in bursts, and asking too many overs of Joe Root thaws the potency of the attack against an arch-rival dominating the batting charts in the second iteration of the World Test Championship. Aryan Surana tweets at @iamaryansurana, Tony Bishop at @tonybishop1 and Jeremy Henderson at @messyjez. Match features written by Tony and Aryan can be read at https://www.guerillacricket.com/category/features.

South African cricket wasn't in a happy place for quite some time. The passion for watching the game dwindled. Sponsors were hard to come by, racism allegations flew, and the administration seemed to be reaching an impasse. Amid such turbulence, SA20 proved a commercial hit. We discuss the game-changing impact of the league with Richard Asher, an Austria-based sports journalist whose claim to fame is going to school with Jacques Kallis. Our chat rolls forward to the debatable exclusion of Lizelle Lee and the socio-cultural effect of the inspirational Proteas women journeying to the final.

Native Daniyal Shah addresses burning questions emerging from the Rawalpindi run-fest and Multan humdinger as Pakistan bite the dust at home. Co-podcaster Aryan Surana is intrigued by Joe Root's outlook on reverse scooping and the evolutionary graph of Ben Duckett and James Anderson in the subcontinent. We discuss man of the moment Abrar Ahmed and the tactical masterstroke that was England's brave declaration on a pitch as flat as a pancake.