The England Test team has taken up a fascinating batting method recently, which has been dubbed “Bazball”, in honour of the current England coach and former Kiwi skipper, wicketkeeper and free thinker Brendon Barrie McCullum.
When the method works it is revolutionary because Test cricket is supposed to be played by batsmen who protect their batting lives almost as much they protect their actual mortality. Risk taking is minimised; bats and pads are supposed to be intermeshed to form a single composite wall of defence; balls delivered centimetres outside the stumps are watched rather than engaged.
I played with a couple of opening batsmen who reckoned their best stroke was the forward defence; their second best was the “leave”. For them run making should occur only when a bowler strays from the pure line and length. If the bowling is good and the pitch flat this approach can lead to accusations of boredom.
Test cricket has had such arrows slung toward it on occasion. That is not to say that the game is always played with such a defensive mindset – pitches spin, seam and can bounce erratically. The more adventurous batsmen take to the bowlers with rapid wrist work and dancing feet, especially when the pitch is bland. If the intention is to commence a Test match with a draw front of mind then five days of tedious battle may ensue.
The first Test of the Pakistan-England series at Rawalpindi commenced with the former conditions. Just how to get a result other than a batting-dominated draw on a surface as even, hard and long-lasting as sections of the Hume Highway before La Nina?
Enter “Bazball”.
The architects of ‘Bazball’: England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendan McCullum.Credit:Getty
England’s cricket renaissance has been startling. During the northern summer they scored three remarkable victories against Test world champions New Zealand by chasing three targets in a row around the 300 mark.
The fourth innings of a Test is the Bermuda Triangle of victory. The pitches are at their trickiest on day five and the psychology of survival often overwhelms, yet England chased the totals at 3.6 runs an over, six an over (on the back of a Johnny Bairstow 136 off 92 balls!) and 5.5 an over against an experienced and skilful attack.
Bazball was born and flourished. The fear and repercussions of losing had been waived, and the players have responded accordingly.
Australia made the West Indies look third rate, but they haven’t used the Bazball method. They scored at 3.9 an over in making 598 in Perth and 3.7 an over getting 511 against the pink ball in Adelaide – good scoring rates but not a patch on the action at “Pindi”: 657 at 6.5 an over, 506 of those on day one in 75 overs. Thankfully, the sun went down, saving Pakistan from bowling another 15 overs. At that rate of scoring, England would have made 600 in a day!
England celebrates the final wicket in their win over Pakistan in the second Test in Multan.Credit:Getty
Day one certainly set up the victory, one captain Ben Stokes described as “England’s best ever away win”, as the final wicket fell with no more than 10 minutes of light available. A great victory, no doubt, but Pakistan fielded four debutants due to injury, three of them bowlers.
The conditions were all in favour of batting. Pakistan then proceeded to bowl very badly. The outfield contributed with a speed that would have pleased Augusta National greenkeepers. No doubt the early onslaught unnerved Pakistan’s rookies, so credit for the intent and delivery from the England batters.
The second Test was similar, but different: a pitch giving the bowlers something, mainly spin, the scores and the run rate came down, but still went at 5.4 in the first and 4.2 in the second innings. Stokes declared – generously to many minds – and Pakistan were on route to win after tea on day five.
England got reverse swing happening, and won by 20-odd runs, a close margin in Test cricket, in a very watchable Test where fortune favoured the brave.
Brendan McCullum and Ben Stokes after England’s win in the second Test.Credit:Getty
But is Bazball sustainable against top-line bowling on pitches that give rather than take?
We might find out in the Ashes next northern summer. And we might get a clue in February as England take on New Zealand in the return series across the ditch.
Australia chose to grind the Windies down with prolonged spells in the field, unforgiving, low-risk, but positive batting, playing old-fashioned Test matches where zero compromise snuffs out the opponent’s spirit. Would the Australian captain and coaching staff ask David Warner to play with the same unfettered freedom against South Africa that McCullum and Stokes have given to Zac Crawley against Pakistan?
England’s Test schedule has been reasonably heavy this year, so a failure one week is followed relatively quickly by another innings and a chance at redemption.
Crawley is young and on the rise; Warner, by his own admission and plain observation, is nearer the end. He has always been an adventurous spirit – not for him the bat and pad bromance; a leave considered a necessary evil rather than a safe haven.
Given these parameters, does Bazball work for him or against him? Would Marnus Labuschagne forgo a 200-ball century for 50-ball 70? Nah.
I can’t see the Australians casting aside their cricket DNA for a theory. The England team has the right ingredients at the moment of the young and the reckless to cook up a Bazball cake. Australia would have to wait for the next Test generation composed of white-ball smiters.
England are to be admired for taking the high run rate ground. Their recent wins have been very un-English, and all the more power to them for taking the draw out of the equation.
The prospect of England taking on Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, Pat Cummins, Scott Boland, Michael Neser, et al with all guns blazing is delicious. I don’t want Test cricket in any way resembling white-ball cricket, but if that does happen, then I’m pointing the finger at the batsmen who has the fastest hundred in the history of Test match cricket – his first two names might start with a B.
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