We are often reminded that all good things must come to an end—some gently, others hauled towards a cold-blooded demise, painful to witness in flesh and blood.
Ask the erstwhile Kiwi batter and England’s current all-format coach Brendon McCullum and his once charismatic captain Ben Stokes and they would whole heartedly agree, more so with experiencing
the latter. England’s Bazball approach, once the envy of the world, cut back to 2023 which saw these mighty fine players come back from being two-nil down to drawing the series at home courtesy the belief and brave confidence that McCullum had instilled in them then has now become a laughingstock.
The Three Lions’ Performances Aren’t Exactly Going North Down Under!
Each passing act feels less like bravery and more like recklessness, their bravado draining away as
they gaze, wide-eyed, down the wrong end of the barrel. Already 2–0 down, they appear a step behind the astute Australians who have read the contest far better than their old rivals and are now dictating its terms.
The intrepid fan may wonder, if this is a series that perhaps is already lost in the mind more than on the field?
One truly can’t comprehend the insatiable need for the English batters to constantly play an aggressive brand of cricket when the situation has often demanded to be a bit more measured as seen in the first Test at Perth and then the day & night encounter at The Gabba.
This after England would have felt massively confident to demoralise an Australian attack devoid of two stalwarts in Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins. But truth be told, the demoralising has only happened to the guests who perhaps only won one session amid the plenty contested across the two Tests when they had all but shredded Australia for 132 all out in the first innings of the opening Test.
Since then, they have just been humbled and so has the charisma of Bazball losing 6 wickets for just 88 in the second innings of the first Test and 6 for 123 in the second innings of the Test that followed.
What could one put this procession of wickets down to- Overconfidence vs Reality?
When a pitch is conducive to seam bowling, if a team loses early wickets, it’s only natural that the
batters that follow should look to be a bit more measured, get acclimatised to the seaming track and then play their strokes. Well, not for the English batters as the statistics mentioned earlier in the article have shown, they perhaps just feel the need to attack and relentlessly so not realising that they are attacking their own chances of not piling a total worth some note.
This has happened across both the Tests with guys like Ben Duckett, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith being rather overconfident to continue to be aggressive rather than facing the reality of being a bit cautious and playing the match situation.
Only the experienced Joe Root has shown some mettle piling up a well-deserved ton at Brisbane and Ben Stokes to a degree has followed suit when he made a cautious half century of 152 balls in the second innings en route to mounting a face-saving almost 100 run stand with Will Jacks, which made the Aussies bat again who till then were looking to hand the English an innings defeat. A question worth pondering, where is the learning for the other batters?
So what happens next for English Cricket or should one say Bazball?
If one were to revisit the statistics since the 2023 Ashes, England has won a crucial away series against New Zealand but at the same time has meekly surrendered to India and Pakistan away from home while drawing a series against the former at home. With this being said, they have also convincingly beaten the West Indies and Zimbabwe at home. But one would really expect them to do so with the West Indies still being nowhere close to their past glory despite and the Chevrons always being rather humbled by the bigger teams, which really brings me to the question ‘What’s the future for Bazball or for that matter English cricket?
From where the fan sees, the answer seems simple, unless otherwise
It’s about being a bit more mindful of the conditions they encounter every game and showing
flexibility to adapt rather than holding on to a notion of being ultra-aggressive that perhaps did hold
them in good stead in the years gone by, albeit is not at the right end of the bargain now. McCullum and Stokes need to realise this and play the situation of every game instilling a new sense of Bazball, which could evolve from what it was, perhaps a Bazball 2.0.
A new mantra which is about adopting another kind of mindset of being loud not through aggression, but through adaptability.
After all, The Ashes isn’t lost as yet. The real question, though, is whether Brendan and his chargers believe they can mount back a strong resurgence?
