Bazball’s revels are now ended, and this week English cricket enters a brave new world after the retirement of captain Ben Stokes and defenestration of head coach Brendan McCullum. Well, actually, it’s not all that brave, nor particularly new – Joe Root returning as skipper; recalls for Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope for the Test series against Pakistan. And overseeing it all is another New Zealander in Stephen Fleming; though McCullum does assure us that his former international team-mate is ‘like me only better’.
Of course, one might argue that isn’t necessarily hard. McCullum’s tenure started in a blaze of glory in that heady summer of 2022 when all things – enormous run chases at least – seemed possible. The shackles of the previous regime (when Root was captain) were thrown off as England won 11 of the former New Zealand captain’s first 13 Tests in charge.
But it wasn’t just the results, it was the sheer nonchalance – and no little skill – with which they were achieved. Indeed, English cricket’s efforts to reinvent itself, and apparently the Test game in general, were unquestionably wonderful for a while.
Then they became simply questionable. Hubris seemed to set in, and like Ernest Hemingway’s bankruptcy, the end came gradually, then suddenly, hastened by a chastening winter Down Under. Australians will, quite rightly, scoff at the idea that ‘Bazball’ was anything more than the emperor’s new clothes: it was what Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Adam Gilchrist et al were doing at the turn of the century. And the current crop of Aussies dealt comfortably with the best England could throw at them in the latest Ashes.
What cannot be in doubt, however, is that it was a revolutionary approach compared with the previous regime, with the Chris Silverwood-Joe Root axis having been brought down by its increasingly safety-first approach to Test-match cricket. Stokes happily went on record saying he had no interest in playing for a draw. But no matter how many times your star batsman tries to ramp his first ball for six, the fact remains you can’t change the way Test cricket is played, you can only change the way you play Test cricket.
There is a line between attacking cricket and hair-brained recklessness
It was just a shame that McCullum’s men didn’t have it in them to adapt their approach when the situation called for it. Other teams continued on their merry way, playing to their strengths, minimising their weaknesses, as teams have done pretty much since the dawn of Test cricket. And by the time that Stokes walked away – with the rather desultory efforts Down Under in the Ashes this winter no doubt playing on his mind – the ‘Bazball’ record stood at 27 wins, two draws, and 20 defeats, with seven of those losses coming in England’s last nine Test matches.
So on the face of it there is not a whole lot for the new regime to live up to. But the questions over the long-term viability of Test cricket have not gone away. It just remains to be seen whether there is anything anyone can do about that. Root, one of the greatest the game has seen, will try, but he will need a wholesale revamp of his approach to captaincy – and not just lifting the midnight curfew that Stokes and others fell foul of, to much confected outrage. He certainly can’t be the same reactive captain he was in his first tenure. He will have hopefully learnt that attacking Test cricket does excite the public, but it is the unique balance of Test cricket that is needed to keep the game alive in the public’s sporting consciousness amid the ADHD cricket on offer for far too much of the calendar.
There is a line – and let’s be honest, not even that fine a one – between attacking cricket and hair-brained recklessness. One has to hope that Fleming can help Harry Brook locate the right side of that line before he fritters away what should have been one of the all-time great Test careers. As for the selections, it is interesting that Lawrence has earned a recall – yes, he is the second-highest run scorer in this summer’s County Championship, but what is telling is that he has amassed his 788 runs at a strike rate of more than 80. It hints at an approach not too far removed from the previous regime.
And that’s the issue. Given Bazball’s ultimate shortcomings, it might be expected that reining in the recklessness would be the order of the day. But the county game doesn’t really prepare players for the Test game, not least with no red-ball cricket being played in the past few weeks: England just have to play the hand the ECB has dealt them. It is hard to revitalise a format which the powers-that-be appear to have stopped caring about.
But lack of preparation doesn’t apply only to the batsmen. Bowling in the white-ball slogathons is even more of a departure from the line-and-length discipline required in Test cricket. Only with a high-quality bowling attack did McCullum’s approach work (a drop-off in results coincided with the departures of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad). If you routinely struggle to take 20 wickets in a game and allow the opposition to dictate just how many you need to chase down, it requires a huge shift in mentality – one that is beyond many batsmen brought up in the ‘see ball, hit ball’ culture of the T20 era.
Yes, Gus Atkinson, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue et al will run in gamely and take a few wickets. Jofra Archer might too, if Root doesn’t overwork him again. They may also get hit for a few too many for England to chase down. Perhaps occasionally a draw will feel like a win. Just don’t tell Ben Stokes.
Comments