Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden has praised England for the brand of cricket they are playing under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes and says the Pat Cummins-led team can learn a lot from the way England plays Test cricket.
Australia clinched a thrilling two wicket win in the Edgbaston Test after the match went down the wire on the final session of Day 5.
“They (England) will only know one way to play now. Stokes really said it in his press conference as well. ‘Look, we didn’t get that result but that’s not going to stop the way that we want to go about our business’. In fact, I reckon Australian cricket can learn a bit from it (BazBall),” Hayden said on SENQ Breakfast.
“It was a brilliant five days. You couldn’t stop watching it,” he added.
The Australian response during the first Test was to play catch-up, and since it’s a fine team, they did it really well. But Hayden feels, they will have to revise their tactics in the next Test and must the batters must take a cue from the BazBall.
“Even when I think back to Usman’s second innings – and this is being incredibly critical – but there was a time where he really needed to have a bit of BazBall himself and be inspired by it.
“He was really in a situation where he was locking down the run rate and occupying the crease and then you’ve got a young Cameron Green who was doing the same, trying to find his tempo in Test cricket.
“We know and we’ve seen through his T20 performances that he can be an absolute rockstar in terms of the way that he plays.
“Some of the senior players – Davey Warner a big tick, just his attitude, the way that he was in to the ball, good body language. Usman Khawaja occupying the crease but also could probably find a gear when he has to relieve pressure off some of the other players.
“Alex Carey had a fantastic game, Marnus Labuschagne at the moment does look like he’s really caught on the crease so he’s going to have some work to do on that BazBall mentality.
“I think (Steve) Smith is also a bit the same. He was fantastic through certain periods of the World Test Championship, but those two key players (Labuschagne and Smith) for us can get a little defensive. They’re more defensive than attacking and I’d really like to see them explore and extend upon their current mindset as a batting unit.”
Take on Robinson
Hayden also wants David Warner to take on Ollie Robinson, who doesn’t have much pace and has also gave an unnecessary send off to first innings centurion Usman Khawaja.
“As soon as Pat Cummins started coming at Joe Root and hit a couple of sixes,” he said.
“Then the other bloke (Ollie Robinson), he’s a forgettable cricketer.
“A fast bowler that is bowling 124 (kph) nude nuts and he’s got a mouth from the south.”
Someone like him, you can just go, ‘Brother, I’m coming at ya’.
“Davey Warner can do that, right. He can just say, ‘You’re bowling 120km…’”
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