England Must Persist With Their Attacking Approach

It has been a year since England embarked on a refreshingly bold, aggressive and no holds barred approach going under the rather catchy term “Bazball’’ which has yielded remarkable results. In 14 Tests since then England have won 11, and lost three with no draws.

Two of these defeats have been by margins of one run and two wickets. This just shows how close England have come to making it 13 victories out of 14, The only bad defeat has been South Africa winning by an innings.

This new approach which took off after Ben Stokes was appointed captain and `Baz’ McCullum the coach (hence the term) has been bisected, dissected and analysed ad nauseam and the experts are convinced that it is the way Test cricket should go forward. There has been a lot of talk about the traditional format being in serious trouble faced with competition from the shortest version – T-20.

The doomsday prophets have in fact predicted the death of Test cricket. In the face of such alarming talk England’s fresh approach that has infused new life in the longest version of the game is to be welcomed.

Basically what they have done is to adopt an almost devil may care outlook principally with their batting but also in their bowling, field placements and captaincy and the tactic has not only worked wonders for the team but also done a lot in restoring interest in Test cricket.

Predictably, an approach like this which involves risks will fail now and then but it is refreshing to see England continue with an approach that the cricketing world has come to appreciate. Indeed it has been acknowledged as a blueprint for success.

That is why England should not change their approach at Lord’s in the second Test against Australia despite the defeat at Edgbaston. The cynics have been quick to point out the chancy approach associated with `bazball’ but they have conveniently forgotten that very little separated the teams in the first Test.

After all England did come too close to winning and it was not that they were outplayed. In fact, except in the Test against South Africa which was lost badly the strategy has worked wonders in terms of results.

New Zealand were defeated in all three Tests while an even greater feat was winning all three Tests in Pakistan. The series against South Africa was ultimately won 2-1 while India were beaten in a one-off Test. The two-match contest in New Zealand ended 1-1 while Ireland were predictably beaten by ten wickets.

With that sort of impressive record it is clear that England should not be unduly perturbed by the result at Edgbaston. It was a match that could well have gone the other way. A few mistakes were committed which have been magnified as the margin was so narrow and because it is an Ashes Test.

The only real flaw I can see is the declaration made by Stokes late on the first day simply because it was quite unnecessary. Other than that everything went according to plan right from Zak Crawley hitting the first ball of the match to the cover boundary to Joe Root attempting a reverse sweep off the first ball of the fourth day with the match hanging in the balance.

On their part Australia can take their share of the credit for a great contest punctuated by innumerable moments of high quality cricket and culminating in a pulsating finish. This is only to be expected in an Ashes contest especially when the contestants are the No 2 and No 3 ranked teams.

They even overcame the double failure of their two top batsmen Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne who contributed just 35 runs between them in the game. But others rose to the occasion, notably Usman Khawaja and the bowlers, especially Nathan Lyon.

In the ultimate analysis it turned out to be a battle between “bazball’’ and “blockwall’’ with the Aussies adopting a more traditional approach. They scored their runs at 3.20 an over spread across the five days using old school methods and regularly posting defensive fields.

England scored at 4.61 runs an over in the match always looking to attack and came up with unorthodox field placings as underscored by the now famous picture showing the unusual field set for Khawaja.

All the same it was good to see McCullum take the defeat on the chin, even going on to say that the result validated England’s attacking methods while expecting his side to “go a little harder’’ at the Aussies at Lord’s. “We will continue to play our style which is to try and take the game forward’’ said the coach.

There is little doubt that there should be another high quality contest at the game’s headquarters perhaps marked by another exciting finish between two evenly matched sides even if their approach could be quite different.