Ashes 2023WTC champions Australia expose England's 'Bazball' revolution with back-to-back Test wins

By Saurabh KumarIn the lead-up to the Ashes, England had gone all-out attack under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, whose nickname is “Baz,” and won 11 of their last 13 Tests. England were undefeated in a Test series for over a year, despite always chasing a win — even if it meant losing. It was a remarkable turnaround in form for a team that had only won two of its previous 17 Tests prior to the Stokes-McCullum era commenced.

Blockbuster cricket, therefore, was on the cards as the Bazball force was set to take on the near-invincible World Test Champions Australia in one of the most hyped Ashes series in recent history. While Australia entered the series as the undisputed champions of Test cricket, England were playing a flamboyant brand known as ‘Bazball’ under their new coach, Brendon McCullum.

However, just 10 days into the latest edition of the Ashes, the Stokes-McCullum Bazball revolution has been found wanting at least in the first two Tests, with England routinely throwing wickets away instead of pressing home their advantage and Australia taking a 2-0 lead with back-to-back wins.

At Edgbaston, there was murmured criticism of England’s new approach in Test cricket, specifically captain Ben Stokes’s decision to declare the first innings early on Day 1. This was because England could have scored more runs, especially with centurion Joe Root still at the crease. As a result, England lost the match by a small margin in the last few overs.

Advocates of the new approach argued that the match would not have been so exciting if Stokes had not declared early. However, almost a week later, it is clear that the new approach has not been universally popular. In fact, the Bazball strategy appears to be responsible for England’s first-innings collapse from a comfortable 188 for 1 to 325 all out.

“It took just eight days into the Ashes series for Bazball to be exposed as Brainfadeball. Some people see Bazball as awesome for the game and say it makes Test cricket exciting. Do you know who else it’s exciting for? The opposition. It’s exciting for the Australian team or any team who plays against them who have a good bowling attack and good plans,” Mitchell Johnson wrote in his column for The West Australian.

The tourists have been accused of playing the first two Tests in a more traditional way, the way cricket fans have seen red-ball cricket being played. Sure, it wasn’t as flashy as England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have been advocating, but it was certainly effective. After winning a close first Test at Edgbaston, Pat Cummins-led Australia held their nerve against a Ben Stokes onslaught to win the second Test by 43 runs and take a 2-0 lead.

However, England captain Ben Stokes remained adamant that his team could stage a comeback from a 2-0 deficit to win the next three Tests and reclaim the Ashes. What Stokes is saying is good for the motivation of his teammates, but if we look at the history of the series, there have been 72 Ashes series played before the ongoing one, but only once has a team made it back from a 2-0 debacle to taste series victory.

Test cricket is a grueling test of skill, mental fortitude, and endurance and the Ashes–oldest competition in the history of world cricket– is arguably the greatest embodiment of this, with five days of intense battle between two of the world’s most passionate cricketing nations.

The Barmy Army may sing about the “boring, boring Aussies,” and no doubt about the fact that England’s “Bazball” revolution has shown that Test cricket can be entertaining, but ultimately sport is a result-based business, and teams, players will be judged and remembered on wins and losses not on the number of claps they fetch from the crowd.