Wisden Cricket

A cheery start to 2024! Is this the week that Test cricket died? Mark Butcher, Ben Gardner and Yas Rana ponder what the future of Test and international cricket could look like after South Africa announced a second-string squad to tour New Zealand. The Proteas’ squad includes seven uncapped players and a new captain, with the wholesale changes coming as a result of the Test series overlapping with the second season of SA20, South Africa’s franchise T20 competition. Elsewhere there’s discussion about Australia’s victory against Pakistan at the MCG, the India-Australia women’s ODI series, NOC disputes involving several high-profile Afghanistan cricketers and more. Abhishek Mukherjee also joins the show to reflect on South Africa’s convincing victory over India, which saw Rohit Sharma’s side blown away inside three days in the first Test at Centurion. 0:00 Intro / 2:17 Test cricket / 18:55 South Africa vs India / 30:42 Australia vs Pakistan / 37:51 India vs Australia ODIs / 40:04 Afghanistan NOC dispute / 44:11