What is ‘Bazball’, England’s revolutionary new approach to test cricket?

This was also the first time anyone had scored over 340 runs in a test match at a rate of over 6 runs an over. England scored 657 with a run rate of 6.5, ending their innings on day 2.

As amazing as this inning seems, this is a part of a larger trend of English batting performances since adopting a new approach which emphasises fast scoring and fearless play. Termed “Bazball” after new England coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum, it has caused a lot of discussion in cricket circles worldwide. We take a closer look.

Bazball and the method behind the madness

Test cricket is a conservative game that often rewards patience, defensive technique and temperamental fortitude over flair, bravado and innovation. Batters are supposed to last long, grinding oppositions out. The value of a wicket is paramount and the aim of the batter is to stay on the pitch for as long as possible, amassing runs off risk-free shots. It is the bowler’s job to attack, take wickets and move the game closer to its conclusion.

Bazball is a novel approach that tries to shed some of cricket’s long-standing assumptions on how to play, specifically the approach to batting.

Instead of trying to preserve wickets, Brendon McCullum directed the English players to “go for it,” scoring as quickly as possible. The theory behind this is that wickets are inevitable in cricket, regardless of the approach a batter takes. The right ball can beat even the best player with the most solid defence. Hence, it is logical to maximise scoring before that one unplayable delivery arrives.

Further, by attacking the bowlers who are traditionally the aggressors in the long format, batters cause chaos and put immense pressure on bowling teams which then are more likely to make mistakes. Take the example of England’s first innings in Rawalpindi. English openers Zack Crawley and Ben Duckett started with a bang. Of the 27 overs bowled in the morning session, only eight of them didn’t feature at least one boundary shot and none of them was a maiden.

After just one session of play, Pakistan’s plans were in tatters and bowlers were in shellshock. It is difficult to quantify this mental impact but it is undoubtedly there, visible in the fielding team’s actions and body language. Over the rest of day one’s play, Pakistani bowlers would lose their stomach to attack, bowling defensive lines and lengths, setting conservative fields and making plenty of mistakes.

While Bazball runs the risk of batting teams losing quick wickets and folding for a paltry score, when it works, it undoubtedly takes them to a winning position. The trick is to make it work more often than not.

Taking some of the juice from England’s white ball success

It has been a while since England has been a really good test team. More specifically, it has been a while since it has had a batting lineup that can consistently win games. Since the heyday of English teams enjoying the services of Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and a young Joe Root, England has struggled to find dependable test-match quality batters. They have also experimented with almost every promising prospect in the county system, only with certain fleeting triumphs.

The major complaint has been about the techniques of young English batters, with very few having first-class records. Observers have pointed at the decline in the quality of county cricket and an increased emphasis on the more lucrative short formats of the game as a reason behind the decline in English test batting.

While England’s test match teams have struggled for consistency, English white ball teams have undergone something of a revolution. After a disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign, England decided to completely overhaul their white ball setup. Their focus shifted to grooming specialists with bat and ball, and adopting an extremely aggressive approach in the game. Identifying talents such as Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Ben Stokes as naturally gifted shotmakers, the English leadership under captain Eoin Morgan decided to not rein in the instincts of these modern batters but rather, to go hell for leather from ball one, unafraid of failure.

Consequently, England today has one of the best white ball sides in the world, winning both 50 over and T20 world cups in a span of three years. Their batting in the shorter format has repeatedly set records.

Bazball borrows a leaf from the England white-ball setup. Cognizant of the limitations of England’s test batting talent pool, it tries to play to the strengths of the players available. If English players cannot bat like the infallible Geoffrey Boycott, they do not have to. Rather, an emphasis is put on using their white-ball skills and scoring intent in test match cricket to gain an advantage, albeit in a way never seen before in cricket.

McCullum’s selection has also reflected this commitment to attacking: in the ongoing test, he has selected Liam Livingstone, a six-hitting machine in T20s, over one of many more “classical” batters who might be better than Livingstone at playing a forward defence but have a tenth of the sheer impact he can have.

So far, so good but can Bazball work long-term?

From the moment Brendon McCullum walked into the English dressing room and completely changed the way they play, cynics have been waiting for the team to taste failure. And England has not been invincible either.

Earlier this year, after a disastrous performance in the first test against South Africa, former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif tweeted: “South Africa shows that Bazball doesn’t work against a world class bowling attack with variety and a sharp captain who sets smart fields.” Kaif’s criticism did not come out of the blue. After England’s immediate success with Bazball, winning their first four tests under McCullum, observers were waiting for sterner challenges to test this novel approach.

Others have pointed out that the pitches England has played on, have been tailor-made for their belligerent brand of cricket. As Pakistan’s own batting performance in this game seemed to indicate, the Rawalpindi pitch has done hardly anything to help bowlers. So far, while England has played well under Brendon McCullum, a lot has also gone their way to give them to be as successful as they have been.

The best cricket teams play in a variety of different ways. They attack when the time is right but defend when they have to. This flexibility of method is crucial for consistency against different kinds of teams in different conditions. While a gung-ho attack has so far helped England more often than not, abandoning cricket’s old dogmatism only to start a new one seems unwise.
But as McCullum will say himself, his approach is more than what his players do on the field. In many ways, the free-flowing cricket we have seen, is an outcome of a greater mental shift.

Getting failure out of the players’ minds

Failure is an unavoidable part of sport. Bazball has seen some failure and it will see a lot more, often spectacularly so, due to its all-or-nothing approach. When batters are willing to play aggressive shots, they inherently court failure at a much higher rate. But aggressive shots also court more runs. What Bazball focuses on is the latter. English cricketing culture, with its passionate fans and regal history in the game, hates failure. In many ways, the most crucial part of the puzzle is to address this.

McCullum himself said in a press conference, “… that’s where a lot of my skills are, taking a lot of those pressures off people… when you do get to that state where you’re playing the game for the game’s sake, because you enjoy it and you’re invested in it, you immerse yourself in that moment and it’s a great game to play. It’s not a great game when you’re worried about all the other stuff which goes on.”

McCullum knows that failure will come, and when it does, the proverbial knives will come out with it. Yet the whole point of playing his way is to not care.