The Indian cricket team sealed a memorable series win against England with a five-wicket victory in Ranchi in the fourth Test. Despite top stars like Jasprit Bumrah missing from action, the young guns under Rohit Sharma galvanised into a pack of powerful performers. Though England looked in control in phases of the game, India were able wrest control with youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel stepping up in the series. India’s performance has put a question mark on England’s Bazball strategy, as they have now lost the first series since the ultra-aggressive approach by coach Brendon McCullum.
Anil Kumble, JioCinema and Sports18 expert, opened up on whether Bazball did not serve England well: “The challenge when England came here was obvious. Bazball or whatever ball you want to call it, playing in India and beating India here was never going to be easy. India have never lost a series at home in the last decade. They (England) knew that they had to be different but their bowling attack wasn’t something that they believed would be able to penetrate India’s batting line-up.”
“England’s senior batters including Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, other than the Ranchi Test, didn’t contribute consistently. There were some key moments that they grabbed on a couple of occasions but other key moments they let go. It’s all nice to say that ‘this is the way I bat’, but you can’t bat like that all the time. You have to hold back. In Test match cricket, that’s what it is. It’s about situations and that’s what Root did in this (Ranchi) match. No wonder he was successful, something that England will have to discuss and look at.”
Aakash Chopra, JioCinema and Sports18 expert, also gave his ingihht on the impact of Bazball in the series: “The first match took everyone by surprise. We had heard of Bazball, but had not seen it. That you are behind by 190 runs on a turning pitch and then you employ sweep, reverse sweep, reverse hit and suddenly you react, ‘wow, cricket can be played in such a way.’ That was our introduction to Bazball. After that, England found themselves in many situations from where they could have closed matches. I remember Joe Root’s shot from the Rajkot match. England had completely dominated the last session of the previous day’s play. They needed to just consolidate after that, but they didn’t do that.”
“So I feel, if England do an honest assessment, they would feel, Root should play the way he has all his career. There are some basic principles of cricket that have not changed. Bazball should not be used as a cop-up, saying that this is the way we play. If that’s the way you are going to play, then score a century and not 25. If you can’t score that ton, then please play some other way. This logic applies to Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes. Please score runs on good batting surfaces, and give it whatever name you want.”
“The series certainly proved that England played an entertaining brand of cricket. But the success that their most successful batsman got in the end was through playing orthodox, conventional Test cricket that’s being played for over 150 years.”
