The Famous Ashes Series between England and Australia is going on, with the first match won by Australia. The classic five-test Match series is one of the most significant events in Cricket History. England is the host this year. Australia won the first match that started a debate in the Cricket World about the new approach of the English team known as Bazball. However, some people called the Australian approach to test cricket as Aussieball. In this article, we will tell you all the details along with a conclusion.
What is Bazball?
Editor of ESPN Cricinfo UK Andrew Miller came up with the term “Bazball” during a Switch Hit podcast episode. It happened when McCullum was named the head coach of England’s Test cricket team in May 2022. McCullum worries that the phrase does not adequately capture the nuanced nature of the England team’s strategy or his leadership style. However, the name is now used more frequently in the larger cricketing media. The word ‘Baz’ is derived from the nickname of Brandon McCullum. Brandon is known as an attacking player during his playing days. He was also the Captain of the New Zealand team and used this attacking mindset in his decision-making throughout his career.
Brandon McCullum and Ben Stokes joined hands to lead the struggling English side in May 2022. The England Test cricket team’s fortunes reversed during McCullum’s time as England’s coach. Before the signing of Stokes and McCullum, the team had only won one of the seventeen Test matches it had played, with previous skipper Joe Root failing to provide the required results. Since then, the English team has won 11 test matches out of 13 it played. The approach changed test cricket and took it to a whole new level. We will further describe the critical points of the Bazball approach below.
Key Points of Bazball Approach
The Bazball approach is famous all over the world these days. Jonny Bairstow had previously called the Bazball approach Freedom to do anything. People must know the key points to consider in the Bazball approach.
Aggressive Approach
Bazball started the aggressive approach in test cricket. The test players did not score runs faster in the past, as three runs per over were considered enough. But, the English team started to score like ODIs in the Bazball approach. The most significant example of this approach was present in the form of the Rawalpindi test between Pakistan and England. England scored 506 runs on Day 1 of test cricket, almost twice what most teams scored in a day.
Surprising Declaration Calls
Another factor that is unbelievable for most cricket fans was the surprising declaration calls by Ben Stokes. In the first Ashes Test, England declared the innings on 393 runs just 20 minutes before the day ended. It was never happened before in test cricket. Most teams did not declare on the first day of a test match and never did, with just 393 runs on the board. A similar incident was also recorded against the New Zealand earlier this year that favored the English team.
Put Pressure on Opposition Batters
Bazball approach does not allow the opposition batters to settle on the crease. Ben Stokes put fielders around the players to make them uncomfortable. It helped many times as the batter lost focus and gave away his wicket. In the first Ashes Test, Usman Khawaja lost his wickets due to this approach. He batted well for his 141 runs but lost his wickets cheaply to Ollie Robinson. Ben Stokes put fields around the pitch, leaving the point and third-man area open for Khawaja to play shots. He tried to hit the ball through point and gully region and lost his wicket. Similarly, Stokes used Moeen Ali to get the wicket of Travis Head which he got even after taking him out for seven boundaries.
What is Aussieball?
Aussieball is not a term commonly used. However, after the first Ashes test, only some people used it to draw a difference between the approaches of the two Captains and their style of Captaincy. Aussieball is the more systematic and conventional approach to test cricket. Australia played regular test cricket without taking risks in the match. Pat Cummins only tried to attack a little and let the English team do what they wanted to do. It ended up with an outstanding victory for the Australian team when it beat England by two wickets.
First Ashes Test Match Report
The first test of the Ashes series was played at the Edgbaston ground. The English team batted first, and Zak Crawley started the series with a four on the first ball. Joe Root was the star in the first innings with a classic 100. It was his first century in the Ashes after eight years. Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley were the other two notable stars, scoring half-centuries. England declared the innings at 393/8 soon after the completion of Root’s century. The decision was taken 20 minutes before Day’s play ended. Australia played four overs and did not lose a single wicket. Lyon was the best Aussies bowler with four wickets.
The Australian team showed a great fight in the first inning and had an answer for every Bazball approach tactic of Ben Stokes. Usman Khawaja was the man of the moment with his outstanding knock of 141 runs. Travis Head and Alex Carey played two brilliant knocks along with Usman Khawaja to score 386 runs. Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson took three wickets each. The match was also hit with the rainfall as well as the low over rate. England’s team batted in the 2nd innings but could not score enough runs. The team got out on 273 runs in the 2nd session of day 4.
No batter could get past the 50 runs mark. Cummins and Lyon took four wickets each. Australia needed 281 runs to win the match. Usman Khawaja again batted like a pro and scored a half-century. However, the star batters from the team were Captain Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, who provided necessary contributions to get their team on the line. Australia chased the score in the last hour of Day 5 of the first Ashes series test.
Which is best? Bazball or Aussieball?
Aussieball shows what traditional test cricket was known to be in the past. But, it is also a factor to consider that cricket fans lost interest in test cricket after the success of T20 and franchise cricket. Bazball approach could not give the necessary result to England in this test match. But, it is the way to go to save the test cricket. You win some, and you lose some, but the beauty of cricket will always remain the same. Bazball is excellent for the future of test cricket, but you have to sacrifice a few wins like England did in the first test of the Ashes series.
