This Week in Cricket #199: Black Caps selection questions for 2026 and IPL Week 3 in review

In this episode of the show, Stu and Raj discuss the current overseas tours involving the Black Caps and NZ A, plus some key emerging questions as the third week of IPL 2026 comes to a close. We start the show by discussing the many Black Caps on tour in various parts of Asia in the month of April - primarily the NZ side in Bangladesh and the NZ A team in Sri Lanka. We highlight names to watch such as Curtis Heaphy and Tim Pringle, as well as the form of familiar faces like Henry Nicholls, but then wonder whether there will be opportunities for any of them in the year ahead as we look forward to key series against England, India and Australia. As we turn our attention to the IPL, the middle orders get their time in the spotlight. The openers dominate the headlines - and the orange cap leaderboard - but can you win the tournament without a reliable middle order? Shreyas Iyer and his Punjab Kings come in for praise, while questions are raised about the Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans despite their impressive performances so far. To round out the show, we debate whether it is time to put a line through the Mumbai Indians' chances and talk through the most recent games on the calendar, which saw costly missed opportunities, the highest IPL team score of the season, more runs for Cooper Connolly & a first win of 2026 for KKR. We'll be back in your feed again soon with more cricket news, including plenty of IPL coverage and the current NZ tours. Until then please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or

You can listen to This Week in Cricket #199: Black Caps selection questions for 2026 and IPL Week 3 in review online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

This Week in Cricket #199: Black Caps selection questions for 2026 and IPL Week 3 in review is an episode from The Top Order Cricket Podcast by The Top Order Podcast.

This episode is 48:19 long.

This episode was published on Apr 20, 2026.

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