The cricketing world has hailed the recently concluded India’s Test series in England and there have been only minority voices of criticism about England’s Bazball approach. England’s aggressive batting has meant they have doled out flat pitches, without an even contest between bat and ball, and the Tests generally tend to rush along at a frenetic speed before the drama picks up on the final day.
Australia’s former captain Ricky Ponting though is on the majority view that Bazball is attractive to watch.
“I’m as Aussie as anyone and I love watching the way they [England] play. The Aussies embraced it and learnt about it the last time they were here,” Ponting told UK’s The Times. “They’ll have an understanding now of what is a slightly more refined version of what England started a few years ago.
“I think they can [bat aggressively in Australia], and they will definitely try. It’s the way they naturally play and it’s the way the coaches and captain want them to play. It’s the way they need to play — it just sets up everything for England, putting immediate pressure back on the bowlers. You [the fielding side] have to adapt really quickly. They probably hold the key in Australia. If they can bat really well at the top, and set things up, that will give them a good chance in the series.”
Ponting believes that England have shown recently that they can adapt their Bazball approach a bit, and not just be uni-dimensional. “When it first started, it looked like Joe [Root] got carried away a bit. He changed his game. He’s gone back to playing normally. Ollie Pope is naturally aggressive and scores pretty quickly. Stokes might have the lowest strike rate of all the batters since it began [he does]. [Ben] Duckett and [Zak] Crawley are the two leading the way. So there’s been some refinement, and against the best teams they needed it.”
England tour Australia for the Ashes series in November, and it remains to be seen what kind of tracks Australia prepare. When India were there for a Test series from last November to this January, the pitches were pretty spicy in general. Ponting isn’t sure what sort of tracks Australia will serve this time around to England.
“It’ll be interesting to see which way we prepare our tracks. I don’t think the Aussies will be saying anything to the groundsmen. Certainly through my time I didn’t speak to the groundsman, and even my coaches didn’t speak to him. They always expected them to prepare the best wicket they could … I don’t really know which way England want it. They probably play their best cricket when they’ve got flatter pitches, because that’s what they need for their batting, but in Australia they probably need something in the wickets to help their bowling.
“England are praying they’ll have Archer and Wood fit. If they are, they’ll have a crack with both of them in Perth and Brisbane, and then try to mix and match them for the rest of the series. Archer adds so much to their line-up, that bit of extra pace that lifts everyone’s energy. And he’s done well against Australia in the past, and so has Wood. If they get both of them right the attack looks pretty strong. Gus Atkinson’s looked good and he’ll bowl OK in Australia.”
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