Brendon McCullum’s views on Bazball:
Since the Test loss to the West Indies in March 2022, England has won 4 consecutive matches against the 2 of world’s biggest cricket teams in the past 40 days and many believes it is because of their new captain and coach duo, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
The term “Bazball” has been resonating throughout the cricket community for the past few weeks. Because of the aggressive approach, England has taken under McCullum.
First Team England demonstrated their dominance in international cricket by sweeping New Zealand in the recently concluded test series.
With the aid of Jonny Barstow’s special knocks, England was able to reach the targets of 277, 299, and 296 in each of the three tests.
Then, in the fifth postponed test of the five-match test series, which India had previously led by 2-1, the highly charged English team led by Ben Stokes upset the visitors by 7 wickets.
But the ex-skipper of New Zealand stated that this playing style could at times be over-simplified and misunderstood.
“I don’t have any idea what ‘Bazball’ is. It’s not just all crash and burns, if you look at the approach, and that’s why I don’t really like that silly term that people are throwing out there,” ICC quoted McCullum saying to SEN radio.
“Because there’s actually quite a bit of thought that goes into how the guys manufacture their performances and when they put pressure on bowlers and which bowlers they put pressure on. There are also times where they’ve absorbed pressure beautifully as well,” he added.
“I certainly wouldn’t say that”, McCullum said as he shared insight on what he and his team are trying to accomplish with this strategy.
“All we try and do is play a brand of cricket which gives the guys the greatest amount of satisfaction and gives them the best opportunity. We’ve also got an obligation to entertain,” he added.
“The media over here, it is a huge beast and sometimes the negative and the positive can seep into an environment,” he said. “One thing we’ve tried to do is just be totally honest with one another and try and block some of that external stuff out and quieten down some of that noise. I think that’s helped,” said McCullum.
England is currently on fourth place in the ICC test rankings.
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