This Week in Cricket #171: Two-tier Test proposal, India's 10-point plan & Champions Trophy news

In this episode of the Top Order Podcast, Raj, Jamie and Stu discuss some of the major talking points from the past couple of weeks, including the apparent proposal to change the Test structure to two tiers, India's 10-point plan towards team harmony, Champions Trophy news, James Vince, Pakistan spinning their way to victory against the West Indies and Jimmy Anderson's love for the game. We open the show by discussing the reports suggesting the boards of England, Australia and India are planning to start a conversation that could lead to a proposal to separate Test cricket into two divisions of seven. With a lot of details still to be determined, we talk about our initial reactions to the idea, how an ideal version of the proposal could work, who might benefit from it and ultimately whether it would be a step forward from the current World Test Championship. From there we move to white-ball cricket and the Champions Trophy, with India naming their squad yesterday. Mohammad Shami returns from injury with Rohit Sharma as captain and the experienced core of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and co. given an opportunity to go one better than the World Cup in 2023. We also discuss the BCCI's 10-point 'Policy Document for Team India', plus England's upcoming white-ball tour. To round out the show, we talk about pitches in Pakistan and batters around the world struggling against spin, the PSL window and how James Vince's decision could lead to more instances of the nomadic cricketer, plus a shout out to Jimmy Anderson as he looks set to return to Lancashire for the county season. We'll be back in your feed again next week with our regular This Week in Cricket show and hopefully the full crew back together. 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 thetoporderpodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for listening. 0:00 Intro 0:45 The two-tier test proposal 17:45 Champions Trophy squad news - India 20:30 The BCCI's 10-policy 'Policy Plan for Team India' 32:40 England's best XI for the Champions Trophy 42:15 Pakistan v West Indies - pitches and spin 54:00 James Vince & the PSL 1:03:45 Jimmy Anderson playing on with Lancashire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices