Explained: What's Bazball Cricket and how it's changing England team
The ‘before’ and ‘after’ story perhaps best encapsulates the success of ‘Bazball’, or the aggressive mindset the England test cricket team has adopted after Brendan McCullum and Ben Stokes took over as the coach and captain respectively. Before their appointments, England won only one Test out of seventeen matches under the previous captain, Joe Root. Since they adopted the swashbuckling style of cricket that McCullum was known for during his playing days, they have won 11 out of 13 tests, and have not lost a single series.
What is Bazball?
The name ‘Bazball’ was coined by Andrew Miller, the UK editor of ESPN Cricinfo, during an episode of the Switch Hit podcast. It’s inspired by McCullum’s long-standing nickname ‘Baz’ and his aggressive brand of cricket. McCullum reportedly objected to the term, calling it “silly”. He says there’s more to England’s new approach to Test cricket than what the term suggests.
Traditional test cricket
Test cricket, since it is played over five days, has traditionally been known for its slower tempo, especially when compared to the one-day or 20-20 formats. Batters usually take a slower approach, preferring to defend rather than attack the bowlers. The idea is to blunt the opposition’s bowling and fielding by tiring them out and gradually scoring runs. It’s normal practice in test cricket for batters to not score a single run for several overs, and not feel guilty about it.
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Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara are prime examples of this type of Test cricket, ready to bat for several hours, putting a heavy price on their wicket. The flip side of it is that it could be rather boring for the spectators, especially in today’s scenario of instant cricket when people’s attention span is much lower and immediate results are expected.
New approach to Test cricket
Enter ‘Bazball’ approach that the McCullum-Stokes duo have introduced with successful results so far. The idea is to play attacking, aggressive, and positive cricket that aims for victory rather than being willing to settle for drab draws. The batters are expected to score runs with a higher-than-usual strike rate, and the bowlers are pushed to take 20 wickets as fast as possible.
England’s exciting new find, Harry Brook, has spearheaded this new mindset. He has hit four centuries and three fifties and averages 81.80 in just seven Tests. Just before the on-going Ashes series, Brook said that he was going to target Australia’s off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
“If he bowls a good ball, then I am going to respect it. But other than that, I am going to try and take him on. He could get a lot of wickets, but hopefully, we are going to hit him for a lot of runs,” said Brook as quoted by ICC.
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“I would like to think I am a player who can find gaps and hit different gaps, I try and play all around the wicket. I will see whatever field he has; I am sure they will probably start with everybody up and we will go from there,” he added.
In December last year, England reached a total of 506/4 at the end of the first day’s play in the test match against Pakistan. They scored these runs in just 75 overs at a run rate of 6.75, and after their team was weakened by illness. This was an unprecedented record in test cricket.
The previous record for the most runs on day one of a test match (494/6) was set by Australia against South Africa in 1910.
Litmus test against Australia
The litmus test for England’s new strategy in test cricket is the current Ashes series against the newly-crowned world champions of test cricket, Australia.
“Every Ashes series gets the juices flowing but there’s added excitement this time around,” former England skipper Nasser Hussain told The Metro.
“That’s because of the brand and style of cricket this England side are playing. There’s that question we all have: can they turn up and do to Australia what they have done to every other side they’ve come up against?”
Steve Smith, Australia’s star batter, said that both sides are playing great and the series will be exciting.
“It is going to be exciting. The way England is playing with their aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach, the way we are playing, it has been good,” said Smith.
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The Australians have said that England has probably not faced a quality bowling attack that Australia boasts, and with the confidence gained from beating India convincingly in the WTC final last week, the kangaroos will be raring to beat England on their home turf.
The first day’s play of the first test of the series has seen England score 393-8, with their opener Zak Crawley hammering the first ball of the Ashes series through the covers for four, and Joe Root scoring his 30th test century.
It’s a rousing start to the Ashes series, and promises an exciting brand of cricket over the next few weeks for cricket lovers.