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

WTC Final Review and England vs India Preview With South African Cricket Coach

·23 min·1 clip

Temba Bavuma is called an “absolute legend” for the way he batted through injury.

Episode 32 opens on the World Test Championship final. Gareth Trudeau is the guest, and the conversation starts with what South Africa's win actually means back home, from the lift around the country to the crowds waiting at the airport. That thread stays central. The show compares the moment to the Springboks and treats sporting success as something that can pull a country together when other parts of life feel rough. Then it widens out. There is a proper argument about the final itself, including the pushback that South Africa got there without playing any top-three nations and the counterpoint that they still won a one-off Test against one of the world's best sides. The chat does not sit on the fence. It comes down clearly in favour of the WTC final, because having a trophy on the line gives red-ball cricket the kind of shape white-ball cricket already has. From there, the episode turns to the bigger format question. The hosts talk through how English cricket treats Test cricket as the pinnacle, where every ball, day, and session carries weight, and the final becomes a neat way of giving that intensity a real prize. The debate sharpens again on four-day Tests. The case against them is blunt: the tradition is five days, and the best matches need that full stretch if you want last-hour chaos and all three results still in play. That point gets repeated hard. The episode even hangs on the idea that the truly great Tests often only resolve late, so shortening the game would sand off the bit everyone remembers. England-India comes next. The pair look at the teams and preview the series before closing on the three palindrome cricketers game, which gives the episode a lighter finish before the clue trail lands on Faf duper see. Overall, the episode feels like a cricket obsessive thinking out loud at speed, with opinion and quick reactions packed into one brisk conversation.

As heard by us

A brisk Test-match chat that lands hardest when it argues for five-day cricket.

Episode 32 moves at a brisk pace, using the World Test Championship final and England-India predictions to frame a clear case for why Test cricket still matters.

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Why you'd press play

For a South Africa-WTC fix before England-India.

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