Bazball: Why England’s novel approach could help Indian team in Tests

England’s innovative ‘Bazball’ approach to cricket has made them a force to be reckoned with in the red-ball format. The method, however, doesn’t always work to their advantage, as the Ben Stokes-led side found out in the first Ashes Test against Australia in Edgbaston.

The side had been on a roll since Brendon McCullum took over as coach of the Test side last summer and Stokes took charge in the red-ball format from Joe Root. Introducing the kind of fast-paced brand of cricket that McCullum had himself brought into the New Zealand team back when he was captain, England would go on to win 11 out of their next 13 Tests. The new approach brought in a sense of fearlessness in the team that helped them a mockery of targets close to the 400-mark, as was the case in the delayed fifth Test against India last year.

It also might have cost them the first Ashes Test as Stokes’ declaration on 393/8 on the opening day of the five-match series has raised plenty of eyebrows since.

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While the new method will not always yield results and there will be some naysayers, ‘Bazball’ as an approach apparently is here to stay, as insisted by Stokes after the Birmingham defeat. And it is that approach that will not only make cricket all the more interesting and keep the so-called dying format alive, it is also something that other teams could learn from to improve their own Test fortunes.

Australia showed signs of that during the ICC World Test Championship final against India, when Travis Head walked out to bat on Day 1 after a fightback from the Indian bowlers, and changed the course of the game with a superb counter-attack, putting pressure back on the Indians with the kind of quick scoring rate that has come to be associated with the Englishmen.

One could even say that India had adopted a similar culture at the height of its most glorious chapter in Test cricket, during Virat Kohli’s reign as captain with Ravi Shastri as their coach. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, after all, became an integral member of the Test side even if he wasn’t the best when it came to keeping skills and would only improve gradually over a period of time.

It was his game-changing knocks in the middle order coupled with a range of unorthodox shots not very different from Joe Root’s reverse scoops that helped India register some of its most famous triumphs abroad, including against Australia at the Gabba in January 2021.

Some of that attacking culture has, however, fizzled out of the Indian team as is evident in their performances of late — most notably in the WTC final at The Oval earlier this month. The Indian batting department appeared a pale shadow of the team that had feasted on this very attack in Melbourne and Brisbane in the 2020-21 tour as well as in the two London venues in their 2021 trip to England.

The pressure built by the Aussies through a sizeable first innings score of 469 along with the loss of early wickets ensured Australia had won more than half the battle in the marquee clash. The team appeared to be playing catch-up from thereon, which reflected in the body language of the batters present in the middle. Ajinkya Rahane tried instilling some fight with a brave 89, but there is only so much he could have achieved all by himself.

And it’s not just the batting department that needs to be aggressive to bring about a change in India’s approach to Test cricket. The team thrived under Kohli’s firebrand leadership, which not only motivated players on the field to bring out their best and inspired them to fight fire with fire, it was also responsible for keeping the Indian supporters in the stands interested and involved in the game for longer periods of time, and would often lead to a better response from players on the field. Unfortunately for the Indians, that sense of aggression appears to have been diluted of late, and needs to be revived.

Last, but not the least, India needs to be bolder with its selection policy and take a firm call on non-performers. India have been guilty of carrying too many passengers in its playing XI of late while benching tried-and-tested match-winners, such as Ravichandran Ashwin in the WTC final. If India really is serious about recapturing the No 1 position in the elite format, that would be an ideal place for it to start from.

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