The Ashes are still six weeks away, but the boys, particularly Baldy and Binksy, couldn't resist taking a brief detour away from the T20 World Cup to discuss the lay of the land leading into a series that always provides plenty of talking points.

• Will the English players have to quarantine?

• What grounds will the games be played at?

• Which spots are up for grabs in the Australian line up?

• Are we enjoying the banter?

• And will Ben Stokes play a part?

Eighteen months ago it was hard to imagine we'd have the final of the IPL and the opening games of a T20 World Cup within the same week, but in this new-normal world that's exactly what happened.

We talk the excellent turnaround from CSK, led by Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni, who powered to victory via the bats of Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Moeen Ali, and an excellent campaign from the full squad. There's also plenty of love for KKR and their Kiwi contingent for the way they stormed into the final.

Speaking of Faf du Plessis, we discuss his omission from the South African T20 World Cup squad, as well as Imran Tahir and Chris Morris, and debate whether the West Indies should have made an exception for Sunil Narine.

As the T20 World Cup conversation continues, our Universe Boss correspondent provides a Chris Gayle update, before we discuss the opening day of the tournament, which saw hosts Oman defeat Papua New Guinea and Scotland upset Bangladesh.

For more T20 World Cup coverage, check out our preview of the tournament, which focuses largely on the Super 12 stage, plus our episodes with Niall O'Brien and Daniel Beswick, which include content about the group stage.

It's World Cup time, which also means it's preview time!

The show starts with an epic Baldwin explainer, before we each select a team to discuss in more detail (no prizes for guessing who we choose). With our biases out of the way, Raj poses four big questions to the group:

• Which player/s are you most excited to watch?

• Who is your dark horse team to lift the trophy?

• Which team will underwhelm?

• And who will make the semis, final and win it all?

We focused largely on the Super 12 stage of the tournament and beyond, but for a rundown of the early stages, you can dip back into recent episodes with Daniel Beswick from Emerging Cricket and Niall O'Brien, commentator and former Ireland wicketkeeper/bat.

The Ashes are on (hopefully), and England have named a nearly full-strength squad, but does Joe Root have enough support to get a positive result?

It's business time at the IPL and CSK are already through to the final after another quality knock from Ruturaj Gaikwad and some MS Dhoni magic. But there's no place for the star-studded Mumbai Indians, who were pipped to the post by Lockie Ferguson and his Kolkata Knight Riders.

The door to the Women's World Cup title creaked open a little when India broke Australia's ODI streak and then kicked on with strong performances throughout the rest of the tour. Keep your eyes on your feed in about a week's time for more on the Women's World Cup and the White Ferns tour of the UK, as Katey Martin joined the show to take us inside the camp.

And the resignation of both Wasim Khan and Ian Watmore has us trying to join the dots, while there's also talk of New Zealand attempting to reschedule their cancelled tour to Pakistan.

We were planning to take a pause of our This Week in Cricket episodes to dive into our Men's Test Cricket Hall of Fame, until the Black Caps tour of Pakistan was abandoned just hours before the first ODI was scheduled to begin. Then, the morning after we'd talked through our initial reactions to that news, more stories broke - the upcoming England Men's and Women's tours to Pakistan have also been cancelled, and reports of a scare related to the England v White Ferns ODI series - so Baldy and Binksy got together again to react to a situation that appears to still be evolving, as politics and sport collide once more.

In the remainder of the show, you'll find a quick whip around other news, including:

• White Ferns v England ODIs so far;

• Virat Kohli stepping down from the captaincy of India's T20 side and RCB at the end of the ICC T20 World Cup and the IPL;

• Amazing catches and an evergreen Darren Stevens in the Vitality Blast;

• and Covid disruption to the New Zealand home summer schedule.

This week on the show we start by trying to make sense of the cancellation/forfeiture/postponement (??) of the 5th England v India Test.

• What was the result of the series?

• Does that matter?

• Was this all about the IPL?

• Is this current fixture list actually sustainable for the players?

We also look back at what was an entertaining series to discuss the impressive contributions from Rohit Sharma and the confusing puzzle that is the English batting lineup.

In the second part of the show we race through a number of topics to review the week that was:

• Australia look set to cancel their Test with Afghanistan

• Tom Latham and Ajaz Patel shine in Bangladesh

• White Ferns lose a nail-biter in the final T20 against England

• The IPL is back again

• The ins and outs of the T20 World Cup squads

The New Zealand teams are back in action, there's drama in Pakistan and Shardul Thakur has become the world's greatest allrounder - it's been a busy week!

We start the show by discussing the news that Pakistan coaches Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis have resigned from their roles only hours after the T20 World Cup squad was announced, before celebrating wins for both the White Ferns and the Black Caps over the past few days. There's Sophie Devine's milestone performance, Ajaz Patel shining in overseas conditions once again and we debate whether we can learn anything from the matches in Bangladesh.

England v India takes centre stage after the swish as we try to make sense of a series that has seen public opinion fluctuate from 'Sack Virat Kohli' to 'India are the greatest team of all time' and 'England have found the answers to their problems' to 'England are terrible at Test cricket'.

We also shine a light on outstanding performances from Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur and Chris Woakes, discuss whether Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson need a rest and make our predictions for the 5th and final Test.

It's another jam-packed lockdown episode with plenty going on as we cast our eyes around the world to discuss the week that was and look ahead with excitement.

• Are we in a special era of fast bowling?

• Will Shaheen Shah Afridi become one of Pakistan's greats?

• Are highlights packages getting worse?

• What impact has The Hundred had on the women's game?

• How much fun are the commentators having at the CPL?

• Will the return of Suzie Bates be enough for the White Ferns to upset England?

• And how excited is Raj about the upcoming Black Caps v Bangladesh series?

In the second half of the show, we turn our attention to the England v India series in an attempt to figure out why we got our predictions so wrong for the 3rd Test.

• Did Virat Kohli make the wrong decision to bat first?

• Has Jarvo got someone on the inside?

• Is the Indian batting line up just as fragile as the English one?

• Can Joe Root do it again?

• Will Ravichandran Ashwin finally get a game?

• And will any of us get our predictions right?