Test Match Special podcast reviews tumultuous English cricket summer

TMS team dissects a chaotic 2026 English summer

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Test Match Special has published a retrospective podcast episode on the 2026 English cricket season, describing the campaign as "sometimes chaotic" and "tumultuous".

Test Match Special podcast artwork for A tumultuous summer

Episode details list the programme as available for over a year and note that the TMS team look back at the English cricket season. Henry Moeran is joined by fellow TMS commentator Simon Mann, World Cup winner Ebony Rainford-Brent and Matt Henry from the BBC website to discuss the themes of the summer.

Key themes covered

The episode frames the season around several big narratives:

The dramatic demise of Bazball
The rise of the men’s T20 side
A home Women’s World Cup
The revamped Hundred

The discussion brings together commentary perspective with analysis from the BBC website, with Rainford-Brent providing World Cup-winning insight on the women’s game as the programme assesses a summer that the TMS team characterise as tumultuous.

Programme Website