Interview with Akhter here from earlier this year: as well as shifts at Lord's, he trialled all over the place, was clocked at 90mph on one of the umpire GoPros last year and played hockey for England at junior level.

thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

Joe Root lbw to Zum Akhter for two. Harry Brook in.

The artist known as Joe Root.

Bristol, for Gloucestershire v Yorkshire, which was washed out entirely last year, so this is already a stark improvement. Joe Root and Harry Brook here too.

🚨 NEW POD! 🚨

🎙️ Cameron Ponsonby
🎙️ George Dobell
🎙️ Nick Friend
🎙️ Ashley Giles

One for your coffee break ☕️👇

youtube.com/watch?v=YApInQ…

'Ask any of the lads about Patidar.'

Callum Parkinson and Ollie Price start their season today.

Nice to speak to them both about their first England Lions experience, testing their game at a higher level, Andrew Flintoff's wisdom, and imposter syndrome.

thecricketer.com/Topics/premium…

🚨 NEW POD! 🚨

'We're all trying to fight it, but the gap is widening between the haves and have-nots' 💬

🎙️ Cameron Ponsonby
🎙️ George Dobell
🎙️ Nick Friend
🎙️ Ashley Giles

↘️↘️↘️

open.spotify.com/episode/0709qJ…

At the start of a season where overseas recruitment has been more fraught than ever, good to sit down with Kyle Abbott - 367 first-class wickets for Hampshire at 19.84 apiece.

Into the last year of his contract, at 36, but feeling as good now as in 2016.

thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

Really good to have Ashley Giles with us for this. Thought he was excellent across a variety of topics facing Worcestershire and the wider county game:

Greatly enjoying Anderson Phillip's contribution to Trinidad & Tobago's 520/5 (and climbing)

🚨 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐏𝐎𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓 🚨

🎙️ Jonathan Norman, Stephen Harmison, George Dobell & Nick Friend bring you:

🔘 The use of the Kookaburra ball!
🔘 Can Sam Cook play for England?
🔘 Jimmy Anderson to manage his workload
➕ More!

📱 Listen 👉 pod.fo/e/22ff80

Sam Cook v good in this:

Interview with Gloucestershire quick Ajeet Singh Dale, who geared up for the county summer by net-bowling at Afghanistan's Test squad.

A 23-year-old with genuine pace, a pretty unusual action and an underlying obsession with bowling fast.

thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

Truly, you just can't spend a whole season missing from there and expect to wander away from a relegation battle.

Good to get the perspective of Glamorgan head coach Grant Bradburn on the Kookaburra, with his experiences of it in New Zealand.

Safe to say he's in favour, but with caveats around appropriate pitches and recent weather.

thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

🎙️ We'll be recording another pod later in the week...

Let us know if you have any questions for our team and we'll get to as many as we can! 💬

You can catch up on last week's episode here ➡️ youtu.be/vqkPFlDDOnU

All kinds of records broken over four days at Lord's. April often wrongly considered a bad time to be a batter, which statistically (and anecdotally, here) it isn't.

Very lucky to get four days' cricket though, given increasingly what spring looks like.

thecricketer.com/Topics/county-…

Tom Helm the eighth of 15 batters in this game to 50, Ryan Higgins the second to 200. Middlesex 622-8 in response to Glamorgan's 620-3.