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From centuries since the birth of cricket we have seen various aggressive style batsmen and their game. From Vivian Richards to Sanath Jayasuriya, Adam Gilchrist to Virender Sehwag or the Caribbean beasts like Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard, we have seen these batsmen dismantling the opposition with their batting in various formats but we in our wildest dream would have never imagined this style to be adopted by whole team in the shortest format of test but this have been accomplished by the England Cricket Team (ECT).
According to Collins English Dictionary Bazball means a style of test cricket in which the batting side attempts to gain the initiative by playing in a highly aggressive manner. Word origins are after Brendon McCullum, known as Baz (born 1981), New Zealand cricketer and coach.
ECT were at the rock bottom in the season of 2021-22 till march 2022 by losing 17 tests and only 2 wins but the change of captain and coach worked in their favour as they removed Joe Root and made Ben Strokes their captain.Former New Zealand international and destructive batsman Brendon McCullum was appointed coach of ECT’s test squad and the duo of Strokes and McCullum decided to use the Bazzball approach.ECT’s battings’s runrate rose to 5 in coming test matches.They defeated New Zealand by 3-0 , South Africa by 2-1 in England and Pakistan by 3-0 in their home in the year of 2022 by constantly applying Bazzball approach by putting pressure with the mountain of runs on opposition if batting first or by fearlessly chasing when batting second contrary to the original gentlemans’s approach of the test cricket where defense plays a important role.
All the glitter’s is not gold the same can be said with this approach which was observed in the Ashes series of 2023 which was tied 2-2 , obviously far better from ECT’s earlier defeat of 4-0 by the hands of Australians but this Ashes could have been won by ECT if only not Strokes have declared the 1st inning of 1st test match early in sheer confidence and lack of patience. It’s not only cricket but in other games like Football too these type of approaches like Conte Ball and Sarriball etc have been used but each with it’s own benefits and losses but this type of addition is new for cricket especially test matches.
Ben Stokes labelled it as new brand of cricket as cricket is a entertainment business but is it really so, the experts opinions are mixed in this case .Some call it a good way to revive test cricket as tests will become short and more boundaries will be scored so more public invovlement but on contrary some say that it will be against the spirit of cricket as the role of patience in the game is diminished.
Also not all pitches are same and if the role of swing or spin bowling increases it will be tough for any team to play in this style.Whatever is the case but we are witnessing a transition in the game of cricket which means it is evolving and in the latest turn of events ECT is against the mighty Indian side which is nearly undefeatable at their home for 5 match test series. Will Bazball counter the Indian spinners or Indians will have a upper hand ,it will be interesting to see.
