Cricketmas 2024: Two greats retire and we wrap up England v NZ and Australia v India

It's Cricketmas time again on the Top Order Podcast! This week we have a very special episode* wrapping up recent Tests in Brisbane and Hamilton. Firstly to the Brisbane Test between Australia and India [0:00]. With both top orders struggling, we try to decipher which team has more rocks or diamonds. In amongst all the analysis and breakdown is the shock retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin that broke just minutes before we recorded on Wednesday 18 December. We pay tribute to a true great of the game and lament his non-availability for what promises to be two exciting Tests in Melbourne and Sydney with the series on a knife-edge at 1-1. Then it's time to wrap up both the England v New Zealand series from Hamilton [33:56] and the retirement of the great Tim Southee. Raj wants to maximise the remainder of Kane Williamson's career (don't we all) and we contemplate if Will Young has done enough to hold his spot going forward. On the England side, our northern hemisphere analysts discuss whether Ollie Pope has done enough to keep his spot, and how good Jacob Bethell could be going forward. From all of us at the Top Order Podcast, have a wonderful and safe holiday season! If you enjoy our content, please vote for us as the Best Cricket Podcast in the Sports Podcast Awards. We’re delighted to be shortlisted and really appreciate your support: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-cricket-podcast/ We'll be back in your feed again next week with more news and views from the cricket world. 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. * We're not sure how it's special. It's special like all Christmas episodes are special we suppose. Except we don't sing. We truly value our listeners too much to do that... 0:00 Introduction 1:20 India v Australia - questions for the Aussies after rain disrupts play 21:55 Questions for India 27:40 Ravichandran Ashwin's retirement 34:00 Black Caps v England - NZ win the third Test 46:20 England's tactics and approach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices