Should other countries adopt Bazball?

After England’s tour of the Caribbean in early 2022, one in which England lost all three of the tests against a team, at least on paper, significantly weaker than them, leaving them bottom of the World Test Championship table, change was inevitable. Even prior to the tour, Joe Root had aimed to save his position as captain by dropping, or, in official terms, ‘resting’ the old guard in Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, England’s highest ever wicket takers, and usher in a new era of test cricket in England. There were calls for an overhaul of the English summer, with many wanting a new county championship; whilst others blamed white ball leagues around the world. They thought that test cricket had to once again take dominance over limited overs cricket. The answer to England’s ailment, however, was something even more revolutionary: England had to embrace the white-ball mentality in the traditionally conservative brand of cricket that had, for so long, been the successful way to go about test cricket. And so, as Brendan ‘Baz’ McCullum and Ben Stokes took the heralded greens of Lord’s, the embodiment of cricket’s deep rooted traditions, the term Bazball was coined.

Brendan McCullum is a man whose name is shrouded in legend. Playing for and captaining New Zealand, he always deployed an aggressive style when going out to bat, however, when being made England head coach he had limited experience in the coaching role. Rob Key, the man who had taken the main administrative role and appointed him, mirrored McCullum’s inexperience, jumping from the comms box and the front of the media into the background as the managing director of the ECB; and so it is completely fair to say that, despite looking like a master stroke in hindsight the appointment of McCullum sent shockwaves around the cricketing world. The third man in England’s red ball revolution needs no introduction. Ben Stokes took the responsibility of being captain of the side and hence the man to face the brunt of the media when inevitably something went wrong. Together the trio conducted one of the most remarkable turnarounds in cricketing history. 

But what actually is Bazball? Well to truly understand the philosophy, one must go back to one of cricket’s darkest days. On the 25th of November 2014, New South Wales and South Australia faced each other at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Phillip Hughes, one of Australia’s brightest stars, batting on 63 was struck on the neck by a bouncer and remained 63 not out forever. As many cricketing stars, considered their future in the game, McCullum seemed to embrace the uncertainty telling his New Zealand side that they’re going to play without care, without consequence, because we are going to play every day as if its our last and to hell with judgement, as reported by the beloved Kerry ‘Skull’ O’Keefe. However, Bazball isn't just about ‘see ball’, hit ball’. One of the most understated elements of Bazball is the psychological aspect. McCullum and Stokes have often encouraged expression, however it goes further than that. The fear of failure has been completely removed from the minds of the squad. This stems from three key moves. Firstly, Stokes has made it abundantly clear that he will always back his players. For opening batsmen, this is something that has completely transformed their approach. Since Alistair Cook retired, England have tried 18 different openers with every new one driving with the fear of being dropped. Not only did this instil negative cricket into the minds of these players but also created a feeling of uncertainty in the changing room, with a lack of consistent partnerships within the team. Secondly, and in a way a continuation of the first, the fear of failure has been completely removed. It has been said that Stokes would rather his players get out strolling down the wicket, trying to hit six than aiming to defend but edging the ball to slip. He expects buy-in and for that he is prepared to accept failure. Lastly, there has been an increased emphasis on being proactive. From umbrella-esque field placements in the ashes to Root’s now trademark reverse scoop, England have strived to be ahead of the game.

Although, I’m sure the successes of the phenomenon that is Bazball are common knowledge, I’ll issue a small reminder. In the first summer of its existence, England chased down scores of 277,299,296 and most notably 378 against a formidable India side - not in any way to discredit the initial three chases against World Test Champions New Zealand - before then beating South Africa 2 wins to 1. Next was a challenge in Pakistan as England toured the country for the first time in 17 years. Here we saw an almost perfect form of Bazball as England whitewashed Pakistan to win the series 3 games to nil. Then, England once again faced New Zealand, where they won by a comprehensive 267 run margin in the first game before an all time classic in Wellington in which New Zealand got the better of England by one solitary run on the last ball of the match. 

In hindsight, as England currently struggles in India, having lost the series despite winning the first encounter, this New Zealand defeat can be seen as a turning point in the team’s fortunes. Without downplaying the mammoth task of even tying a series with Australia and winning a game in India, England’s record since the home summer of 2023 has been far from pleasing - winning just 3, losing 5 and drawing 1. A 33% win rate isn’t pretty reading for a side that had won 10 of their first 11 games under the new leadership. However what’s more poignant is the manner in which they’ve lost. To note the potential failures of the theory, I’ll take you back to Edgbaston in mid June 2023. The three lions, batting first, were in a thoroughly commanding position. Their stalwart in Joe Root was unbeaten on 118 batting with Ollie Robinson as England found themselves 393/8 as the new ball approached. Instead of trying to score quickly with the new ball and scoring 30, maybe 40, perhaps even upwards of 50 more runs, Stokes brought his side back into the dressing room and sent Australia out. Fast forward to day 5 and Australia chased down 282 in a rainy Birmingham with just the two wickets spare. Who knows whether England would’ve been able to snatch away the Ashes had they not decided to declare. Bazball seems brilliant, but that is not to say that it is perfect. 

It is also not a magic bullet that can cure every disease. As much as the England team needed Bazball, Bazball needed a tailor made group of players that would be perfect to make full and complete use of it. To think that one could simply copy and paste it from one team to another, would be taking naivety to an extreme. There seems to be, however, a checklist that makes England the perfect fit. 

Firstly, for something so drastic to even be considered, there needs to be an atmosphere of change within the cricket board. Potentially due to poor results or a pass over from the old, potentially more traditional players, to a new younger, more flamboyant group. This particular criteria brings us to a couple of potential candidates. South Africa and Australia. South Africa’s board is one that has heavily invested in white-ball cricket of late; playing no home test matches now, and so a potential switch in test match mentality could reignite the hunger for the red ball in the country. In addition, South Africa has recently faced the retirements of Quentin De Kock, Faf Du Plessis and Dean Elgar, with younger and, if you disregard QDK, more flamboyant players coming through. The likes of Dewald Brevis, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs could ignite a potential wave of aggression into the red ball side. In regards to Australia, they are another example of an ageing team who could benefit from aggressive youngsters. Their opening pair will be 35 and 38 by the end of this year and the rest of their team isn’t much better. Needless to say, it seems an era is coming to an end for Australia; with Cameron Green and Jake Fraser-McGurk breaking records a changing of guards is coming soon. However, Australia are still, unlike South Africa, a highly successful team in the longest format of the game and so it seems unlikely that, whilst it still works, Australia will want to diverge too far from what has been proven. 

A second criteria is quality. No matter what you might think of the individuals in the England team and their personalities, you must acknowledge the sheer talent in the system as a whole. A talent that is only replicated in a handful of other teams, namely India and Australia. However, as previously mentioned Australia do not have the need to change the way they go about their cricket. India on the other hand, have previously shown a willingness to attack at stages, particularly players like Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, again, India just do not need Bazball like England did. India are a team of immense prestige and power both historically and currently. It would be massively unrealistic for India to ditch what made them the number 1 team in the world and so India can be discounted. 

The last thing that made English Bazball successful, is Ben Stokes. An inspirational captain and figure who is willing to lead by example and back his players is a necessity. However, diving deeper into the state of Test Cricket’s captains, exposes an unfavourable picture. Almost no other captain is anywhere near as aggressive and groundbreaking as Stokes is; most of them - Williamson, Cummins, Sharma to name a few - favour traditional tactics. One name stands out from the list however, Shan Masood. Pakistan’s new red-ball captain, despite losing all of his three games, showed exceptional levels of ingenuity and intent, both through his field placements and his batting. Despite this, Pakistan lack the aforementioned quality as a team overall to be able to effectively execute the relentless counterattacking system, even though they can have moments of utter brilliance. 

To sum up then, although Bazball has a flawed brilliance about it, there seems to be no other team really that can implement it as well as England have and done. For now at least, it is something uniquely in England’s but don’t be surprised if that changes sooner rather than later.