England’s Bazball strategy: What to look for in the India England test series

England, lately has resembled a battering ram in the gentleman’s game that is test cricket. They have been fast, aggressive, and brutal when playing the longest format of the game. They have often doubled down on their opposition when they are ahead in the game and can pull of heists when they seem to be behind.

Stokes and McCullum’s Bazball philosophy has reinvented the conservative brand of English test cricket that derived itself from the MCC manual. The modern English side under the leadership of Stokes takes a swashbuckling approach to test cricket, always hunting for results and never settling for draws

Bazball as a philosophy

Although Bazball was pioneered under Stokes’ leadership, it is in no way over-reliant on Stokes. During Stokes’ injury, Pope assumed captaincy and England played the same brand of brash, aggressive cricket that they play under Stokes. Even with major architects of Bazball leaving the team such as Broad, Anderson and Bairstow, England seem to be breeding more and more talent who are always breathing down the opposition’s neck.

So, how do we dissect Bazball, how do we understand how England have managed to reinvent their style of playing test cricket and manufacture results out of test matches? Their strategy revolves around familiarity with conditions, short pitch bowling, funky fields and aggressive scoring which helps them take away matches within a session.

Conditions and pitches

Bazball has flourished mostly in home conditions and away conditions in New Zealand. England has mostly laid out flat wickets which are batting friendly to suit their aggressive batting approach. Batting friendly wickets allows them to post big totals, going at over 4 runs per over sometimes. 

These conditions allow them to take the game away from the opposition in disruptive sessions. A batting friendly session is capitalised on with English batters sometimes going around 6 runs per over. These pitches usually do not deteriorate which helps with England’s strategy of chasing down totals in the fourth innings.

Their away success in New Zealand can be attributed to similarity with English conditions and pitches eventually flattening out. Similarity in conditions have enabled England to play their maverick style of cricket away from home.

The first test at Leeds was an exhibition of optimal Bazball conditions with a drawn out test match advancing into the final session of Day 5 where all the outcomes were possible. Ben Stokes’ decision at the toss,doubted by many was taken based on the possibility of the pitch not deteriorating and chasing totals being easier. 

Bazball’s brand of cricket is quite reliant on their conditions emphasised by their poor record away in their recent tours of India and Pakistan in 2024 where they failed to play spin effectively on turning tracks.

Bouncers and Funky Fields

Short pitch bowling has been a strategy that Stokes and co. have returned to quite regularly to manufacture wickets out of flat batting wickets. The flip side of laying out flat batting wickets that opponents post large totals against them quite regularly. 

In these situations England often revisit the short ball strategy and unorthodox field settings to create wicket taking opportunities. The first day of the second test at Edgebaston saw them employ the short ball strategy repeatedly at Jaiswal, Nair and Jadeja. While Jaiswal capitalised on the short ball pulling and hooking his way past a half century, Nair eventually gave away his wicket to a Brydon Carse ball that sprang up at him.

With the absence of astute good length bowlers in their lineup such as Broad and Anderson who can extract more swing and seam from the wicket, Bazball tries to create wicket taking opportunities with unorthodox fielding positions and tempting the batter to hit out at the short ball(astute Kiwi fans will trace this back to Neil Wagner) and produce wickets out from flatter wickets.

Batting Aggression

Bazball reinvented test cricket by bringing white ball theatrics to the longest format, scoring at 4s and 5s an over was considered an impossibility in the test cricket of old, and batting first, an ancient wisdom. Bazball disrupts game and in turn disrupted test cricket, disrespecting the good length balls and hitting them for boundaries.

Average and scoring rate of both teams on good length balls in the 2023 Ashes

In the current series, we saw Brook charge Bumrah down the crease banging him for four on the offside. Bumrah, who has wreaked carnage through batting lineups throughout the last year was taken on by the entire English side even though they conceded a fifer to him in the first innings at Headingley.

Is Bazball indestructible?

Bazball’s central principle has been: Live by the sword, die by the sword and that is what they have always done. Their aggressive batting has led them to collapses and losing out advantages in games where they were ahead. Their inability to deal with foreign wickets and playing spin in the subcontinent and their overindulgence and lack of patience when reverting to short pitch bowling.

In their hurry to reinvent test cricket, they have sometimes inclined their best batter Joe Root in playing reverse paddles and scoops and giving away wickets. Bazball has taken England to new highs and even on occasion plunged them into depths, but we can never say that they haven’t made test cricket more exciting to watch.