England’s brazen approach to Test cricket is becoming less successful but it appears Bazball is here to stay despite a stark warning from two legends of the game.
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England have endured a tough 12 months playing their unabashed brand of attacking cricket under coach Brendon McCullum, but they’ve arrived in New Zealand for a three-Test series undeterred.
Since Ben Stokes and McCullum became England’s captain-coach dynamic duo who revolutionised Test cricket in 2022 with their full-throttle approach, only Australia has been more successful.
England have produced an impressive 20 wins and 11 losses in 32 Tests under McCullum while playing a style that has delivered wildly varying results.
Despite their winning strike rate, their inconsistency over the past year has seen England play themselves out of the race once again to feature in the World Test Championship final in June.
With a view to the Ashes next summer, it will be fascinating to see how they perform in a tour of the southern hemisphere.
But England have shown a willingness to explore with the bold selection of the uncapped Jacob Bethell, who has performed well in white ball series against Australia and the West Indies and will bat at No.3.
McCullum’s men are by far the most aggressive batting side in the world, scoring at 4.7 runs per over, which improved Australia’s record – the previous pace setters – by an entire run.
It’s a run rate once considered impressive in ODI cricket but in Tests it can just as easily produce an innings loss as an innings victory.
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Last month, England infamously made Pakistan the first team in Test history to lose a match by an innings despite scoring 500-plus in the first innings.
England went on to lose the series. Go figure.
The bold approach sits in stark contrast to New Zealand, who patiently go about their business trying to grind out wins.
The Blackcaps’ historic 3-0 series whitewash in India last month looked even more impressive considering England were thrashed in India last summer 4-1.
England’s win record under McCullum over the past 12 months is just 50 per cent, significantly below Bazball’s scorching start which produced 11 wins from 13 Tests.
They haven’t won an away series since 2022 but will be looking to change that over the next month in New Zealand, with the first Test starting in Christchurch on Thursday.
England’s most recent series, that 2-1 loss in Pakistan, saw critics call out McCullum and Stokes’ side for their inability to adjust on flat pitches.
“The Bazball method (only) works when the ball doesn’t do a great deal,” former England captain Michael Vaughan said.
“When the ball is going gun-barrel straight, there is no better team in the world, when the ball is not spinning, there is no better team in the world.
“But as soon as the ball moves laterally, now again you hide behind the curtains and watch them because you know there’s a collapse just around the corner.”
But the English Cricket Board weren’t fazed and in September they went all in on the Kiwi great, deciding to also hand McCullum the white ball reins in a bumper new contract until 2027.
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McCullum will need to repay the faith against his mother country over the coming weeks to keep the wolves at bay because with India at home and an away Ashes on the horizon, it’s shaping a career-defining 12 months for the coach.
Prominent broadcaster Harsha Bhogle, regarded as the voice of international cricket, issued McCullum a warning.
“If there is one place England should adapt to seamlessly, it is New Zealand,” Bhogle told Fox Cricket’s The Follow-On podcast.
“It won’t be as hot as anywhere else, there will be a little bit of seam and nip in the wicket, so if you had to replicate English (conditions) far away from home, the closest you would come is New Zealand.
“I can see what Brendon McCullum is doing and I can see why cricket has become so eye-catching, the manner they’re playing in, but ultimately you play a cricket match to win.
“One of the great things about Test match cricket and the reason we’re all pilgrims almost, we all go out in search of the temple that is Test cricket, is that you learn to play in different situations.
“Some days life throws a curve ball at you, you don’t just back up and jump off a cliff, you say ‘right, life threw a curve ball at me, what do I do now?’. Cricket is about that all the time – ‘oh the conditions are favouring the bowlers, what do I do now?’ because eventually I will score enough runs to win.
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“If the approach is I’m going to be aggressive and throw the bowlers off, so be it, but Test cricket is all about adapting to the conditions which is exactly what we saw in Perth with (Indian players) Jaiswal and Rahul and what we saw with Bumrah and the length that he was bowling.
“So I’d like to see that because I think England are exciting but I also think they let themselves down sometimes in their sheer urge to be aggressive.
“It’s a very thin line between being aggressive and reckless and I got the feeling in India when they came across that maybe they were just getting carried away by the approach rather than by the eventual endeavour which is to win games.
“They are making cricket wonderful to watch but I would like to see them adapt because that is what Test cricket is really about.”
Bhogle also had high praise for Blackcaps and tipped a close series but he believes England will return to winning ways in New Zealand.
“I have nothing but the highest admiration for the way New Zealand play cricket, I love the way they play because they’re a team with very few resources. How many players are available to play for New Zealand?” he said.
“So at all times they must make the most of what they have and I look at them and I see simple, humble hard-working people trying to give up their best and that is an admirable way to live life.
“That’s why I have enormous admiration for the way they play cricket, they just hang in there, they won’t give you an easy game and at the end of the game they show you a lot of respect.
“They’re always liked, New Zealand players, so how that translates… I think it’s going to be a close series but England should genuinely believe they can go there and win.”
