England’s bold Bazball approach, designed to dominate the Ashes, met an unexpected setback as coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes admitted the team’s preparation fell short.
The Bold Plan
After arriving on Australian shores with great expectations, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes were intent on imposing an attack-at-all-costs strategy on the contest for the oldest trophy in cricket.
The Quick Backfire
The plan was tested in just one warm-up game-an internal trial against England’s second-string lineup-and it quickly backfired. Relying on a pragmatic, conventional approach and long experience of the conditions, Australia retained the Ashes on Sunday with two matches remaining.
McCullum told British broadcaster TNT Sport that “Retrospectively, we lost 3-0 so you would probably say there was room for change there,” and added, “You put your hand up as a coach and say you might not have got that right.”
After England lost the first two tests by eight wickets, McCullum decided the squad had overdone it in training between Perth and Brisbane and chose to give the players a break at Noosa, one of Australia’s premier beach resort villages. The rest and relaxation improved one statistic: in Adelaide England made it to Day 5 of a test for the first time on tour.
Lessons Learned
McCullum reflected that the Bazball strategy was suspended late in Brisbane when Stokes played a conservative hand to try to save the day-night test. In the last two days in Adelaide, the batters at least tried to grit it out at the crease rather than hit the ball out of the ground every over.
“The last two days have been our best cricket, and that’s because we’ve just played,” McCullum said. “The previous nine days, we were so caught up and so driven to achieve something and succeed that we’ve almost got in our own way and we’ve stymied our talent and our skill and our ability.”
He added that there were lessons for both players and the coaching staff, stating, “There’s a lesson not just for the players. There’s a lesson for the coach and the coaching staff,” and that preparation would be questioned. “But we do have a great opportunity in the next two tests. We need to find something out of this tour. We need to play for pride.”
England’s bowling attack hasn’t consistently hit line and length on the hard, bouncy Australian wickets. Top-order batters gave away wickets with poor shot selection-often attacking when conditions called for defense. Too many catches were put down, whereas Australia’s catching has at times been exceptional.
Moving Forward
Under Stokes and McCullum, whose nickname is “Baz,” England played an entertaining brand of cricket that earned the label “Bazball” and turned around the fortunes of England’s test team. However, the approach has divided critics.
McCullum said some players had gone off script in the heat of the moment. “I did think we were rock hard in our belief of the style we were going to play when we came down here, knowing that we were going to be challenged,” he said, “but I do think we got a little bit stuck.”
Stokes emphasised that there would be no “restricting people’s mindset” in how they can succeed for the team. “You never want to take away their ability to go out and score their runs in the way they feel is best going to suit them,” the England skipper said. “But then, marrying the skills and the ability that they have with the mentality that it takes to be successful as an international sportsman.”
“You put those two together and I know that we’ve got a very, very exciting test team.”
Key Takeaways
- England’s Bazball strategy faltered in the Ashes, with the team losing 3-0.
- A break in Noosa helped England reach Day 5 in Adelaide for the first time on tour.
- McCullum and Stokes highlighted the need for better preparation and a balance between aggression and resilience.
England’s experience in Australia underscores the challenges of implementing a high-risk strategy against a seasoned opposition and the importance of adapting tactics to the conditions.
