What's He On About? Cricket Podcast · Charlie Harden

New England ODI, T20 and Test Squads + County Select XI vs Zimbabwe Cricket

·25 min·1 clip

Charlie Harden says he would pick Jack Leach over Shoaib Bashir for England’s Ashes build-up.

Charlie Harden is back for episode 27 after a week off. He opens with a county championship round-up, starting with Essex's big Division 1 draw against Yorkshire after Matt Critchley and Michael Pepper soaked up 500 balls and Simon Harmer helped drag them out of trouble. It is a real grind. From there he moves into the World Test Championship squads, talks through Australia and South Africa, and keeps circling back to Marco Janssen, Kikiso Rabada, and Ryan Rickleton as the names that could swing the thing. Janssen gets a big shout. The South Africa chat leans on pace, English conditions, and the sense that Rickleton's form at the top could change how the matchup feels. Then the focus shifts again. The county select XI for Zimbabwe comes next, and he leans hard into how young the side is, with an average age around 19 and Josh Dacaries captaining at 23 alongside Dan Mosley in another leadership role. That team is raw. He treats it as a real chance for younger county players to find out where they stand against a full Zimbabwe side, and he flags the game as a good watch. England come last. Charlie runs through the Test, ODI, and T20 squads, noting Adil Rashid's place in the mix at 37, Luke Wood as a left-arm option, and Sam Curran's absence from that side of the discussion. Selection matters here. A lot of the chat is really about pressure points, who opens, who bowls well enough in English conditions, and which players are being pushed into the frame by form rather than reputation. He keeps it moving. The tone stays casual and a bit untidy, which fits the show because it sounds like one cricket obsessive thinking out loud, correcting himself as he goes and letting the numbers steer the arguments. That is the charm. By the end, the episode has stitched together county form, South Africa versus Australia, the county select XI, and all three England squads into one long selection conversation. It is very cricket. Listeners who like squad debates, scorecard talk, and a host who is happy to chase every tangent will feel right at home here.

As heard by us

A brisk county-to-England sweep for listeners who like cricket chat that is opinionated, immediate, and lightly loose at the edges.

Charlie Harden threads together county championship updates, the two World Test Championship squads for Australia and South Africa, the county select XI for Zimbabwe, and the England Test, ODI and T20 squads.

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Why you'd press play

For a county-championship roundup, South Africa squad chatter, and England selection talk in one brisk listen.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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