Bazball. Bazball. Bazball. It’s always just about basball. Honestly. For the amount of the Humbuku he gets, Bazball in two separate cycles of the World Test World Championship did not actually win England’s world title.
When India is preparing to play England in a 5-match test series, it’s again about Bazball. To be righteous, the hype was a little less this time, but it was Joe Root, who started this term again and said that Bazball never received a credit for the tactical nuance he carried with him.
“It doesn’t always have to be reported as it is – I don’t think ‘Bazball’ is the right way to describe it. It was a big change and differs, as many teams play, but there are much more methods than it’s probably perceived,” the former English captain said the day before the start of the match.
This, of course, asks the question of what is really a basball?
The most entertaining thing may be that Bazball, a highly aggressive form of cricket, with a bat and a ball that promised to be more interesting, the term hated by the creator.
On several occasions, the English test cricket came out and noted that Baz (Brendon McCullum) believes that Bazball is a term that the media has given to increase England to test cricket.
Captain England Ben Stokes at the beginning of 2024 said The fact that the English cricket tried to actively stay out of it.
“It’s a phrase that was created by the media. Something we’re trying to stay away from. It just came from what we’ve done in the last two years and as we played. We don’t necessarily like it, Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) hates it whenever we try to say England. 2024.
But isn’t that what England has decided to do? Bring the crowd back with a high -risk brand of cricket?
What goes to Bazball?
Under the leadership of Brendon McCullum, the English cricket team tried to play a very unusual form of test cricket. The Ultra Aggressive team with the bat has declared its shifts on the 1st day occasionally. This led to the rapid movement of the tests.
Especially on flat footsteps were directed teams that were not able to correspond to the pace. Ask Pakistan in 2022 who were thrown out of the water in their own house (0-3). On the playgrounds where other teams had to be detained, the score of 500 runs for over 2 days and then wait patiently for the second team to collapse, England simply said, “No, too much work. I’d rather shoot 500 at 3 sessions and scare the opposition until they get a match.
The tactics worked several times and failed in the others.
It goes without saying that McCullum has been able to identify the harvest of players who are suitable for his playing style. One of the key differentiators between the current crop of English dough against the rest of the world is how many balls leave (shoulder arms) at the beginning of their shifts.
Looking at only one of England and things is clear that, unlike most of the world, English opening likes to control their opponents since the very beginning of the match. Someone like Ben Duckett wants to get a feeling of ball early in the shifts. Zak Crawley wants to get into his long step and pass the ball through the covers.
Since the summer of 2019, as long as Brendon McCullum took over the team, the English bats were in Tatters. Joe Root, their main shooter in this period grafted shifts. If he was able to score big runs, the England gave the pillow enough to miss the opposition, something they did in Sri Lanka.
Best English dough from 2019 to May 2022
Joe root
Running: 1243
Striking rate: 51.42
Rory Burns
Running: 1077
Striking rate: 41.74
Ben Stokes
Running: 813
Striking rate: 56.77
If the Buttler
Running: 735
Striking rate: 47.88
SIBLEY DOM
Running: 484
Striking rate: 32,18
Since Brendon McCullum took over the side, the makeup of this list of 5 best batches looks very different. Joe Root still leads scoring graphs and much faster. The root was so fruitful in the Brendon McCullum era that it was expected to cross everyone and became the second highest scorer in the history of test crickets by the end of this series.
He is 370 -lichd to escape from overtaking Ricky Ponting – and English fans are positive that they will be able to run these runs in 5 matches against India.
The root of the bar, the other doughs also scored at fast speed. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were fertile, so it was more Captain Ollie Pope. The only problem that the Pope may suffer from is nervousness at the beginning of shifts. If after the first hour of launching can get around a 20-run brand, the Pope usually looks like a sensational dough No. 3 in the world.
Best test dough in England in the era of Bazball (2022–2025)
Joe root
Runs: 1783
Striking rate: 70.81
Ollie pop
Running: 1352
Striking rate: 76,16
Zak Crawley
Running: 1045
Striking rate: 77.29
Ben Duckett
Running: 1007
Striking rate: 88.87
Jonny BairStow
Running: 1003
Striking rate: 89.31
According to data crushed Cricbuzz, English doughs play better at home than any team in the world.
Let me explain it. Since 2022, English doughs in domestic tests have been on 30.73 against balls in good length. To put things in a perspective, visiting dough in England during this period on average reached only 13.39 deliveries in good length.
This directly influenced English bats (domestic conditions) and shot their diameter at home at an incredible 43.86, the second best of all countries in the world. England was bullied by teams with a bat at home, which almost helped them take back ashes in 2023 from the then Australia test champion, who destroyed India in the finals.
Try tabs from the host country (since 2022)
Sri
AVG (since 2022): 44.39
AVG (2018–21): 35.51
England
AVG (since 2022): 43.86
AVG (2018–21): 32.25
Australia
AVG (since 2022): 40.25
AVG (2018–21): 44.01
New Zealand
AVG (since 2022): 38.91
AVG (2018–21): 55.28
Pakistan
AVG (since 2022): 37.87
AVG (2018–21): 45.00
India
AVG (since 2022): 37.45
AVG (2018–21): 50.52
Southern Africa
AVG (since 2022): 35.74
AVG (2018–21): 32.98
Bangladesh
AVG (since 2022): 31.42
AVG (2018–21): 32.89
West Indies
AVG (since 2022): 29.22
AVG (2018–21): 25.68
This incredible rebirth of English bats may need a little more context.
In May 2022, just before Brendon McCullum, there was England 6. In the ICC table with only 88 points in their name – far from their Arch -Rivals Australia, who had 128 at that time.
England was so bad that it was their lowest evaluation in the test Fray since 1995. Wherever they traveled, they could not fight. Between 2020-2022, England played 26 test matches, won only 7 and lost 12. Despite a series of victory in Sri Lanka, this period of England was marked by a massive uncertainty between players and fans.
ENG vs Indian, 1. Test: Preview
“I would change Covida. The fact that we played as many games as we did in these environments I don’t think she was just in the group. We played to keep the lights and won the cricket games,” Root Sky Sports said in an interview that thought about this period.
The peak of the uncertainty reached the Ashes 2020/21, when Australia Pat Cummins tore the English side, a series that eventually led to Joe Root was dropped as a captain of England.
And in this context, we have to look at Bazball.
The birth of a bastard
After their losses in Australia and Western India, England needed something drastic. Former English captain Rob Key took over the reins on the ECB (cricket council in English and Wales) and decided to name Brendon McCullum as head coach of the test team in England.
At that time, McCullum coached Kolkata Knight in the Premier League, Indian League, and had no coaching of any international aspects.
McCullum came up with a simple idea. Attack with bat, ball attack, let the test cricket entertain again.
He brought the assurance that players would be supported despite their failures if they were on board with the cricket brand they wanted to play.
And from there it has become magic.
England won against New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and even a domestic test against India.
It was a test match against India, where the fun turned into folklore.
Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root chased 378, completely out of the game after the first two days of the test match (overparting), he turned the heat.
The theater of this game was incredible. Fired by Virat Kohli hit Bairstow on day 3. Day, at a time when he couldn’t get the bat on the ball. This sledding had the opposite effect on what the Indian party would have hoped when Bairstow began to walk with a hammer and pliers against Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur.
Ben Stokes on …
In the face of India
Choosing a dilemata
Virat Kohli, Ashwin & Sharma
And the revelation of the teammate …
Check out our complete interview with Ben Stokes before tomorrow’s first test now – England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 19, 2025
Bar Jasprit Bumrah, which raised 2 goals in recent shifts, none of the Indian pitching could take one goal. Bairstow and Root scored hundreds and chased the unlikely target in Birmingham, 2022.
And with this test match, Bazball was really born.
From there it was Bazball, Bazball, Bazball. Frankly, but it was no denial, the method worked. Even more importantly, it was a fun watch and it didn’t make sense to complain about the ultra -aggressive approach and if it were successful in heavy overseas conditions.
The contrasts
For the whole folklore, which Bazball gathered, it can be said that Bazball has its limitations.
On flat footsteps that England now releases at home, this is a great effective way to scare opposition teams. England Brendon McCullum was successful at home in Pakistan (2022) and in New Zealand, which now offer the most amazing playground on the ground in the test cricket.
But when they faced a sports playground, England collapsed. In 2024 they were hammered in 2024 by India and then lost again to Pakistan at the Turners Rank, later in the same year.
It should be remembered that England’s basbolling still has to face South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka from home, three teams known to be extremely strong in their own backyard.
Their lack of victory outside home led to the fact that he did not reach the World Championship twice in a row. Three if you include a period with Chris Silverwood.
On the contrary, it is also true that England is evaluated as the third best party in the world in the test format, which is a huge success for a party that has been taken over in the lower half of the table just before.
What lies before us?
There is no doubt that under Brendon McCullum in England, she was able to revive her culture of the test cricket. However, the flash time is possible, and now it is time to provide consistent results. In its third year, McCullum is coaching this English page and now they just can’t be about vibrations.
One victory here, another victory there and a number of close missions will not control the narrative of the party, it should not control the party’s narration.
It is time for England to focus higher, belief that they might get if they won the Indian test series.
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
June 20, 2025
