Bazball - named after for the former New Zealand captain and current England head coach Brendon McCullum - is the latest magic potion in Test cricket. New Zealand lost to England three times out of three in England in June 2022. Their attack was depleted by the loss of Kyle Jamieson half-way through the series and wickets offering significantly less seam movement than has been on offer in England in recent year.
With minimal threat of seam movement, and no genuine pace or spin in the New Zealand attack, the English batting made hay. This has happened before. In the summer of 2004, England had a similarly successful series against a similar New Zealand attack (it did not have quite the same wicket taking experience of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, but it had a similar shortage of genuine speed or turn). Alex Tudor was the Jamie Overton of that series.
England’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood describes Bazball in the press in typically elliptical fashion. In his telling, Bazball is not an approach to competing at all. Rather, according to McCullum it is about the survival of Test cricket and the attendant need for Tests to be entertaining.
Sure.
For some parts of the cricket press, Bazball is something of a revolution - a new way of competing in Test cricket. “Being positive” they call it. “Taking the bowler on”. This is basically true. England’s bats did take chances more often against New Zealand’s bowlers.
Was that because of an deliberate approach? Or was it because New Zealand’s bowlers had very little to offer by way of threat once the ball got older and stopped seaming?
Every batter in Test cricket makes choices about the risks to be taken and the risks to be avoided. These choices depend on the batter’s strength, the bowler’s abilities and the playing surface. For example, if a bowler is unable to control his length, then the batter is unlikely to try and score from good length deliveries in the expectation that the long hop or the half volley will arrive sooner rather than later. A comparison between Moeen Ali to Ravichandran Ashwin is instructive on this point. Against the former, the batters can reasonably expect a ball which is either over pitched or dropped short every over. Against the latter, this happens once every four overs or so. Consequently, against Ashwin, the batter has two choices - (a) defend and accept runs at a slower rate, or (b) take more chances, like, for example, sweeping from the stumps. The latter choice involves trading greater risk of dismissal for quicker runs.
As a competitive proposition, Bazball is basically a preference for trading greater risk of dismissal for quicker runs. When the conditions favor batting, this can produce quick runs in large quantities. When they don’t (either because the pitch offers assistance, or because the bowler is outstanding), they can produce quick wickets.
For all talk of Bazball, England’s approach in the field was not particularly attacking at Edgbaston. When there was help in the pitch they set attacking fields and got wickets. When they were chasing the breakthrough, they took measured risks against Pant and Jadeja (such as leaving cover point vacant and employing an extra fielder in the slip cordon). Eventually, they retreated into defense against Pant. They had several fielders defending the boundaries as Pant approach his century. Surprisingly, Stokes held the off-spinner Root back and persisted with Leach even though India had two lefties batting. After Pant was dismissed, Stokes’ choices were singularly cautious. He basically gave up trying to dismiss Jadeja. Then, even after Jadeja stopped shielding Shami, he inexplicably kept the field spread out to offer Jadeja uncontested runs. And finally, England resorted to short pitched bowling against the Indian tail leaving themselves with only one mode of dismissal - caught. This turned out to be an expensive choice.
McCullum’s record as player and coach suggests that he thinks batters are too cautious in Test cricket. The thing is, that Test cricket has proved itself to be too varied to allow teams to be successful in sustained fashion through simple tweaks of this kind.
For all the attention that has been paid to Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Rishabh Pant and co in these Tests in England, its England’s ability to take 20 New Zealand wickets wit pace and spin which won them those Tests. And it is India’s ability (or lack thereof) to keep threatening with the ball as it gets older which will determine the outcome of the ongoing one at Edgbaston.
Bazball is a far more potent talking point than it is a competitive approach.