Is Bazball boring now? ...Middle East

HEADINGLEY — Is Bazball now boring? After some of the messaging from England in the days leading up to this opening Test against India in Leeds, it seems like a valid question.

After all, the decision to keep the faith with Ollie Pope at No 3 instead of pitching in the exciting, young talent of Jacob Bethell could be seen as an indication of a more conservative mindset.

Pope, still yet to convince after 56 Tests and with respective averages of 24.60 and 15.70 against India and Australia, is the vanilla option. Do England really see him scoring big runs against India this summer and in Australia over the winter?

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Bethell, who exploded onto the scene in New Zealand last winter, is the future. The 21-year-old also has the game – solid defence, strong off the back foot and always ready to punish loose bowling – to thrive in Australia.

Keeping him in reserve at the start of this five-Test series against India makes common sense. But it still feels a little too conventional for an England team who have so often thrived in the Bazball era by embracing the chaos or, as head coach Brendon McCullum once put it, “running towards the danger.”

If the words of captain Ben Stokes on the eve of this series are anything to go by, that mantra seems to have changed to “stop running, you might trip, turn around, calmly back away from the danger and go down the emergency exit.”

That is because Stokes gave a fascinating insight into what this newest iteration of Bazball might look like across the next 10 Tests against India and Australia that will define his team’s legacy.

Stressing the need to be more circumspect and reflective when things go wrong, he said: “We know when we are on top of teams we are very, very good and where we maybe have let ourselves down over the last three years is when we have been behind the game.

“I don’t think defensive frame of mind is the right way of saying it. I think it’s just being smarter in those situations when it’s obvious that the opposition have got the upper hand.

“Look at some of the victories we’ve had, they have been in a manner of complete dominance of the game throughout. But when we have lost, we probably look back on moments. Could we have been a lot better at slowing everything down and understanding where we are in the position of the game to then allow us to play in that natural way we like to go about things?

“So, having those reflective moments and honest conversations within the group I think is what hopefully can take teams to the next level and that’s what we all want. That’s what I want as a captain and Brendon [McCullum] wants as a coach.

“I don’t think it’s arrogant or an understatement to say we’ve been good over the last three years but we definitely know we can improve.”

England vs India, 1st Test

England have indeed been very good since McCullum and Stokes joined forces at the start of the 2022 summer. In 36 Tests, they have won 23, lost 12 and drawn just one – the washed-out Ashes Test at Old Trafford two years ago.

Crucially, it would be foolish to think England’s tweaking of their style would make them boring.

They have gradually eased back from the uber-aggressive batting approach that has seen them both pull off some amazing results and at other times collapse like a cheap deckchair.

This change of approach was first flagged by McCullum after the 4-1 defeat in India last year, a series that summed up the Bazball paradox as England pulled off a miraculous victory in the series opener in Hyderabad before being overrun by the hosts.

Christened “Bazball 2.0”, this strategy has seen England win nine of their past 13 Tests. And rather than being boring, the team’s run-rate over this period has gone from 4.59 to 4.71 an over.

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Channelling their aggression and refining the approach has made them a better team. Further refinement against India this summer will hopefully see them reach another level by the time the Ashes rolls around this winter.

England’s last Test at Headingley was against Australia two years ago. It was a contest where they embraced the chaos, storming back from 87 for five in their first innings on the back of a brutal counter-attacking knock of 80 from Stokes to eventually win by three wickets.

It was Bazball in excelsis, but to get to that a higher plain of cricketing achievement, they need to evolve.

This refined approach gives England more control. It makes them more dangerous.

And if they can get on a roll this summer and sweep aside a new-look India shorn of icons Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, nobody will be calling it boring.

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