Winning Bizness Sports Desk

It was a nail-biter of a match at Birmingham which Australia ultimately won in its final moments to edge ahead in the on-going Ashes Test series in England. Fortunes see-sawed during the course of this match till the last hour when Australia finally nailed it to move ahead 1-0 in the five-match series.

Fittingly at the crease when Australia hit the winning run was Nathan Lyon for whom it was a redemption of sorts; it was he who had missed a crucial run-out of Jack Leach in the Headingley Test match of four years ago which enabled England to win that close encounter. Ben Stokes, the present England captain had then scored an unforgettable 135 not out enabling England to eke out a one-wicket victory.

Here, Lyon was beside his captain Pat Cummins who hit the winning runs to snatch a two-wicket victory for Australia and avenge that heart-rending defeat. Lyon is one of the heroes of this Test match, for besides his most valuable 16 runs in the second inning (alongside Cummins) which put paid to England’s hopes, he also snared eight wickets (four in each inning).

Lyon is the hero and the shoe is now on the other foot as far as Ben Stokes is concerned. The latter, the hero four years ago, dropped a crucial catch of who else but Nathan Lyon in the dying stages of the game and with it evaporated any chance of England taking a 1-0 lead and thereby the psychological edge as well over Australia in the on-going series.

Since 2005, when England won the series 2-1, most of the Ashes encounters, especially in England, have been edge-of-the-seat stuff and this series too looks likely to traverse the same path. England is playing a supremely entertaining brand of cricket called Bazball and it has paid them rich dividends over the last one year.

Bazball cricket is the brainchild of England’s coach Brendon McCullum (known as Baz during his playing days) who took over the role in May 2022. It means playing aggressive, liberating cricket with the aim to win, irrespective of the conditions or match situation.

Here, batters go hammer and tongs at the bowlers even if wickets fall; the aim is to maximise scoring. If one loses in the process, then no problem—one must play to win and England under McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has been doing just that during this period. England has played eye-catching cricket and incredibly won more often than not.

Bowlers too are aggressive; they hunt for wickets with attacking and innovative field placements. They may go for a few runs but they also grab wickets at frequent intervals, a phenomenon that has helped England push for wins in almost every match it has played during this McCullum-Stokes era.

The two have combined to lead England to an unbelievable 11 wins out of 14 Tests in what has come to be known as the Bazball era which commenced in May 20220. There have been just three losses during this period—the last being the one in the just-concluded Ashes Test.

It is only because England lost that a lot of cricket experts and analysts have raised questions about Bazball. If England had won, then paeans of praise would have been sung in favour of Stokes’ leadership, England’s style of play and the Bazball brand of cricket.

Stokes has captained England in one Test match against the West Indies in 2020, before McCullum was appointed coach. If one includes this, then Stokes’ record reads an astonishing 11 wins and four losses.

Even in this Test, England held the upper hand for a substantial part of the match though Australia put up a tough fight and was never out of it as such. Set a challenging target of 281 to win, Australia lost wickets regularly and England had them on the ropes at 227-8 with Alex Carey the last recognised batter dismissed.

Australia still needed 54 runs to win and England was the hands-on favourite then. However, captain Cummins and Lyon cocked a snook at England and its Bazball brand of cricket. The duo stuck it out and with the rub of the green tilting Australia’s way slightly, scrapped their way to the target, with just 27 balls left in the match.

An hour away from the close, it was England’s match to lose. And lose they did at close of play to a never-say-die Australia. Cricketing pandits have since then been having a field day criticising England for going too hard—that is playing too aggressively without regard to situational requirements. And perhaps they have a point but it must also be remembered that England was ahead for much of the match, including on the final day and till the last hour when fortune favoured Australia decisively.

The Australians were not intimidated by England’s style of play. Their bowlers never allowed the English batters to run away with the game and its batters withstood all that the English bowlers flung at them.

Had Stokes snapped up Lyon’s catch, then England might very well have won the match easily. It is only because England lost that a lot of cricket experts and analysts have raised questions about Bazball. If England had won, then paeans of praise would have been sung in favour of Stokes’ leadership, England’s style of play and the Bazball brand of cricket.

Therefore, it cannot be argued with any conviction that Bazball had failed in this Test match. England is expected to continue with the same brand of cricket in the next match as well (June 28-July 2, 2023).

More than pin-pointing England’s deficiencies and criticising Bazball, cricketing pandits would do well to analyse Australia’s play and highlight what it did right and how it countered the Bazball brand of cricket.

Australia played cerebral cricket which means it played to its strengths. The Aussies stuck to their tried and tested method of relentlessly plugging away, both in bowling and batting. By playing conventional cricket, they studiously avoided falling into England’s trap.

They were also not intimidated by England’s style of play. Australia’s bowlers never allowed the English batters to run away with the game and its batters withstood all that the English bowlers flungat them. By sticking to their comfort zone, the Australians were able to stare the Englishmen in the eye throughout the match.

England might have got over aggressive, the declaration on the first day being a case in point. And perhaps a little caution could have been exercised while batting in the second inning, especially as it had rained quite a bit on the third day and the Australian bowlers were bowling very well. An additional 15-to-20 runs in the second inning and there could perhaps have been a different ending to the match.

Just like a few additional runs in the first inning could have expanded England’s lead and put them in a more comfortable position in the final stages of the game when Australia was chasing 281 runs for a win. England had declared its first inning at 393-8 just before close of play on the first day in an attempt to bowl a few overs and capture a couple of Australian wickets before the day’s end.

It was a typical Bazball tactic of putting the Australian batters under pressure. Critics of Bazball say that England should have batted on and perhaps added a few more runs which would have helped swell its lead. A 20-25 run lead would have stood England in better stead than just the seven-run lead it obtained in the end.

More than pin-pointing England’s deficiencies and criticising Bazball, cricketing pandits would do well to analyse Australia’s play and highlight what it did right and how it countered the Bazball brand of cricket.

There is a feeling that England has got a trifle arrogant because of its recent streak of wins. England needs to avoid giving this impression and one way to do it is by respecting the game as well as opponents.

England is absolutely right to persist with its brand of cricket, this reverse notwithstanding. What it needs to do in the remaining four Tests is to marry a little caution to its Bazball play. Attacking cricket does not mean throwing caution to the wind.

To illustrate this point, perhaps a slightly cautious approach by England’s batters was called for during the second inning, especially as it had rained. The Australian bowlers did not allow the English batters to run away with the match and contained them to 273 runs, much below what England would have expected.

The match situation called for smart, responsible cricket and England with a little bit of these two attributes could have posted a total of around 300 or a little over which would have made the target more daunting for the Australians. Instead, England found itself short by about 20 runs and the rest is now history.

Bazball has served England very well in the last year but when playing against top-notch teams such as Australia or India, it will do England no harm if caution is mixed in judicious measure with aggression. A point to be remembered here is that England will now have to do all the catching up as it is one down in the five-match series. A second loss will be very detrimental for England’s chances to win this series.

However, there is no need to panic and this one loss does not call for any major review or overhaul of its tactics. Bazball can still serve England as well as it has in the past one year. England must remain positive but eschew reckless cricket. To sum up, they require to play a smart and responsible brand of Bazball if they have to put it across Australia in this Ashes series.

There is nothing wrong with Bazball—it has served England well so far and should do so in the future as well. It is only that England’s unexpected loss has brought it under scrutiny.