Bazball vs Old School: How Australia edged England in a cliffhanger

For five days at Birmingham’s Edgbaston, England and Australia traded blows, punching and counterpunching without compromise or compassion. They used contrasting methods to do so. England, riding on the ‘Bazball’ adrenaline rush, were brutal and adventurous; Australia, the original patrons of these traits, chose to ride the punches, ala Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, and then land the killer blows that dropped the hosts to their knees. It was riveting theatre, microcosming the best of Test cricket as the Ashes got off to the most rip-roaring start.

Benumbing highs and humbling lows

England were in control for much of the game, from the time Pat Cummins called wrong at the coin toss on Friday. In the last 13 months since Ben Stokes replaced Joe Root as Test captain and former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum assumed charge as head coach, they have embraced a brand of cricket exhilarating and exciting, a rollercoaster of largely benumbing highs and occasional humbling lows (thus far) that has revolved around all-out aggression, no matter what.

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They had to do something different at the start of their last home summer, of course. Under Root, they had won just one of their preceding 17 Tests and lost five consecutive series before May last year. Their cricket was limp, tired, timid, hesitant and uncertain, the low point a crushing ten-wicket hammering at the hands of West Indies in Grenada in March 2022 which meant the gaping cracks couldn’t be papered over any longer.

Like they turned to T20 cricket at the start of the millennium to arrest the alarming trend of declining audiences, they placed their faith at the altar of the New Zealand-origin duo of Stokes and McCullum to resuscitate their Test fortunes. Thus sprang ‘Bazball’, the preferred term to pigeonhole their daring approach, derived from Baz, McCullum’s nickname.

It’s an approach that’s paid off handsomely. England don’t play draws any longer, and if they perish in their commitment to ‘Bazball’, they don’t mind so long as they are in the blue on the risk vs reward scale. Including their heart-stopping two-wicket loss to the Aussies on Tuesday night, they have won 11 and surrendered only three of their last 14 Tests, a testament to the efficacy of their new style even if most of those wins have come on home turf and on pitches that bear no resemblance to the ones England is famous for.

England’s stellar opening

Before the Ashes, Stokes and McCullum left no one in any doubt over the kind of surfaces they preferred – flat, batting beauties that would facilitate their designs of hitting through the line with impunity, allowing them to score at five and more runs per over and then using score board pressure and their extraordinarily unflagging new-ball pairing of James Anderson and Stuart Broad to lead their bowling charge. It’s what had worked for them for the past 12 months, so they saw no reason to change tack, even though Australia possessed the best of all bowling attacks that have confronted England in the last year.

Stokes reaffirmed his team’s commitment to ‘Bazball’ at the start of the series, and his batsmen showed that was no empty boast as they hared away on day one, riding on another stellar Root century to post 393 for eight in 78 overs, a run rate of 5.03. Root was on 118 when, with a half-hour left to stumps, Stokes incredibly called his batsmen in. Declared the innings. Took a punt. He wanted Broad to have two overs late in the evening against David Warner, a bunny of sorts who, before this game, had fallen to the England pacer an unbelievable 14 times. It didn’t work that evening – Broad did, predictably, get his man the following morning – but with that complete left-field decision, Stokes had stoked a huge debate on the merit of that declaration.

Also read: Ashes 2023 | 1st Test: Australia edge England in last-day thriller

In England, they all went gaga. Former captains queued up to eulogise the current skipper for being bold and proactive and aggressive, Nasser Hussain the loudest, Kevin Pietersen the most ingratiating and Mike Atherton, surprisingly, also toeing the establishment line. Then, Stokes set funky fields – three men close in on the off-side catching in front of the stumps, as many in a mirror-image setting on the leg-side. He had a fly slip, he sometimes had two leg-slips. It was cute, it was different – many called it ‘creative’, which it might well have been – but how effective it was is open to question. After all, Australia recovered from 67 for three to post 386, courtesy Usman Khawaja’s monumental eight-hour 141, so that creative cuteness didn’t really translate to results, did it?

No Bazball for Australia

Australia were panned for being ‘boring’. In Test cricket. Amazing. They refused to be sucked into ‘Bazball’, playing at their own pace. If they scored at ‘only’ 3.32 runs per over, it was by design. They would play their game, England were welcome to do what they wanted. So, the English booed them – Edgbaston went a long way towards dispelling the theory that crowds in England are fair and appreciate good cricket. Like everywhere else, they also want their team alone to win, and seldom cheered the Australians, and that only grudgingly such as when the excellent Khawaja battled to his 15th century.

Also read: England dismisses Australia to take 7-run lead in thrilling Ashes opener

England’s second innings was a mix of gooseball and ‘Bazball’ – Root remarkably attempted a reverse ramp off the first ball of day four, from Cummins! – at the end of which Australia needed 281 for victory. Only once had the Aussies scored more to win a Test in England, and that was in 1948, by Sir Don Bradman’s The Invincibles. Cummins’ band may not be The Invincibles, but they sure are The Indefatigables. Khawaja was again the hero with a five-and-a-quarter-hour 65 while Cummins showcased the spirit, spunk and character of the visitors with a fairly superb unbeaten 44, rallying Nathan Lyon around for the most famous of victories. You can have your Bazball, we are happy with our methodology, thank you very much, Cummins might have told the Englishmen if he were not a magnanimous winner.

England can have their ‘Bazball’ – hey, who are we to say either way? – but it will be interesting to see if other teams are tempted to follow suit, and if they are willing to accept the inevitable disasters that such a risk-filled approach will bring from time to time. Oh, and what of India? Will they unleash their own ‘Jamball’?

Also read: Ashes 2023 I Bazball in full swing! England’s stunning declaration has Aus on backfoot