Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have revolutionized and transformed a morbid English test team into an intimidating force of nature using an uncomplicated technique, Bazball. Overflowing with generational cricketers, the team struggled to do well, home, and away. Through 2019, 2020, and 2021, they played 36 test matches, winning only 14. Since the start of 2022, they have played 23 tests, won 13, drawn 4, and lost only 6. They have beaten India at home in the rescheduled 5th test match in July 2022, came close to beating Australia at home, beaten Pakistan in Pakistan, and have beaten South Africa and New Zealand at home. This juggernaut of a team will face their toughest challenge yet, India in India. One of the best current test sides meets the greatest home team in the history of the game. Since 2013, India has played 34 tests at home, winning 26, drawing 6, and losing only 2! Several teams with various styles have tried to win here, but this Indian side is just too good. If there is something that hasn’t been tried, it's Bazball. What is Bazball? What is it that England does really well? And the big question is, can Bazball accomplish the final frontier, India at home?
Baz • Ball
“The approach to playing test cricket in an aggressive manner and always going for the win as established by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes”.
Brendon “Baz” McCullum, the English men’s test team’s head coach revolutionized their style of play, and ultimately their test cricketing environment. Granted he hates the term - “Bazball”, but I’ll have to stick with it till we find a better word for it. A team with players like James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Joe Root, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, and Jonny Bairstow had been struggling, struggling to even compete. As the stats above describe, England, hailed as one of the finest test-playing nations in the world, was going through one of its darkest phases.
In April 2022, after England had lost a 3-match series in the West Indies, Ben Stokes was appointed the captain of the test side. Soon after, Brendon McCullum joined the test side as head coach. The new duo’s first assignment - face the coach’s home country, New Zealand in a 3-match test series at home. And the fans instantly saw a change. The team’s behavior and body language on the field changed. They looked hungry to win, and any sane side would fear this side. It was the 2nd test match of the series that really showed the world what this team was capable of. New Zealand scored 553 in the first innings, and England responded by scoring 539 in 128.2 overs at a run-rate of 4.20! That is a very high run rate for a 539 score. Next, the Kiwis responded by scoring 284 and setting a target of 299 for England to win with just a little over 72 overs left on the final day. Guess what happened. The English chased down 299 in 50 overs, winning the 2nd test by 5 wickets, and in turn, getting an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series. And that is how they kept playing and bazballing their way through good sides.
Their biggest test came in the 2023 home Ashes. Facing the newly crowned world test champions - Australia. England hadn’t won the Ashes since 2015, and how could they forget the 4-0 result in the previous 2021 Ashes? They were on a mission this time, but Bazball didn’t work in the first two games, as Australia won both and now led the series 2-0, and were 1 win away from sealing an away Ashes win. But here’s where the effectiveness and magic of Bazball lies: England still believed in the process and kept doing what they knew best. They won the 3rd test and dominated the 4th test until rain played spoilsport and washed away England’s chances of an Ashes win. They went on to win the final test, drawing the series 2-2, and Australia retaining the Ashes.
This is what Bazball is, it instantly changed English cricket, brought changes, made them a match-winning team, and almost won the Ashes after being 2-0 down. This will be a completely different team to the one that visited India in 2021, and the Indians will be watchful, as their home streak could come to an end. Can this England team finally do it? Can this England team finally break through India’s home fortress others have tried to?
Series Breakdown
India will host England in a 5-match test series starting on the 25th of January and the final test is scheduled to conclude on the 11th of March. The breakdown of the 5 tests is as follows:
1st Test Match (Jan 25 - 29): Hyderabad
2nd Test Match (Feb 2 - 6): Visakhapatnam
3rd Test Match (Feb 15 - 19) : Rajkot
4th Test Match (Feb 23 - 27): Ranchi
5th Test Match (Mar 7 - 11): Dharamshala
This will be an extremely important series for both the teams keeping the World Test Championship in mind. India is 2nd on the table with a points percentage of 54.16%, and England way down in 7th with a points percentage of only 15%. If England wants to make the top two, a series win here, and preferably a 4-1 series win will be huge for them, and that is what they will be aiming for. India on the other hand sits 2nd, but three teams below them each have a points percentage of 50%, and India is just a loss or two away from dropping down to 5th or 6th, so a series win will be key for them in their journey to make their 3rd consecutive WTC final. Especially keeping in mind India’s tour to Australia later this year, where they play Australia in a 5-match series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which will probably be their toughest tour of this world test championship cycle.
Both teams have announced their squads, with a couple of recent changes to both squads. The squads are as below:
INDIA (for the first two tests, so far):
Rohit Sharma (C), Srikar Bharat, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Shubman Gill, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan.
Note: Virat Kohli has withdrawn from the first two tests due to personal reasons, Rajat Patidar will replace him for the first two tests.
Note: The BCCI hasn’t yet announced their squad for the remaining matches.
ENGLAND:
Ben Stokes (C), Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope, Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.
Note: Harry Brook has pulled out of the series due to personal reasons. Dan Lawrence has been named as his replacement.
Note: England’s Shoaib Bashir hasn’t yet arrived in India due to issues with his visa, and is currently back in England.
JUST IN: England have named their playing XI for the first test:
Zak Crawley
Ben Duckett
Ollie Pope
Joe Root
Jonny Bairstow
Ben Stokes (C)
Ben Foakes
Rehan Ahmed
Tom Hartley
Mark Wood
Jack Leach
Interestingly, England have opted to leave out James Anderson for the first test. They are going with 3 specialist spinners in Jack Leach, Tom Hartley, and Rehan Ahmed, and just one one specialist pacer. Ben Stokes will be their 5th bowler, and their second pacer. England will have 5 main bowling options, and the 6th one would be Root. This team combination also ensures England don't have any batting depth. With 7 batters, it will be intriguing to see if England stick to their aggressive approach. This is a bold move to say the least, let's see how this pans out.
England also has rectified a few mistakes they made in picking their squad for the 2021 Indian tour. They only picked two specialist spinners and Moeen Ali, who was ruled out of the 3rd and 4th tests. This time around, they have picked 3 specialist spinners, and a bowling all-rounder in Rehan Ahmed, a player whom Shane Warne referred to as a “generational talent”, and of course, they have their 5-7 overs bank, Joe Root, who grabbed a fifer last time he visited India.
INDIA’s Home Dominance
India’s home dominance since 2013 has been unmatched in the modern era. Only Australia between 1998 and 2007 has shown dominance of this kind in the history of the sport. Why is India so dominant at home? And how have some of the finest test teams ever returned from India empty-handed? Forget about others, not even teams from the subcontinent (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan) have been able to beat India. What is it that they do right? And the important question is, is their fortress unbreachable?
Interestingly, it was England who last defeated the mighty Indians at home. Back in 2012, it was Sir Alastair Cook’s England that defeated India 2-1 in the 4-match series. Sir Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen produced masterclasses to lead England to an incredible series win. Sir Cook scored 562 runs in 8 innings at an average of 80.28, and Kevin Pietersen scored 338 runs in 7 innings at an average of 48.28. Make no mistake, the English were fabulously formidable, but India’s young team hadn’t yet hatched out of their cocoons, and right from the next series, they grew wings and haven’t landed since.
2011 and 2012 saw two big players debut for India. In 2011, Ravichandran Ashwin debuted versus the West Indies, and in 2012, in that very England tour, Ravindra Jadeja made his debut. Since then, Ashwin has taken 490 wickets in 95 tests at an average of 23.69, and Jadeja has picked 275 wickets in 68 tests at an average of 24.07. This spin-duo has been India’s frontline weapon in this period of dominance. Out of Ashwin’s 490, 283 wickets have come at home at an average of 19.63! This means he has taken a wicket every 19 balls! And Jadeja, out of his 275 wickets, 191 have come at home at an average of 20.16. Since 2013, Indian spinners have taken 594 combined wickets at home, whereas the visitors have only managed to pick 347 wickets. These are unreal numbers and a big reason why India has only lost 3 tests since 2013.
But Ashwin and Jadeja don’t just produce freaky bowling figures, they are the Indian batting lineup’s critical cogs. What has been India’s greatest weakness overseas, is their greatest strength at home. Their spinners are all-rounders and are phenomenal batters. And the addition of Axar Patel to this list makes their middle-lower order one of the strongest in the world, with all of them being their frontline spinners. This combination ensures India has batting depth without compromising on the quality of their bowling. This is what most other teams lack, specialist spinner all-rounders are a rare commodity outside the subcontinent and that is where India wins half the battle.
The other half is India’s brilliant batting lineup. Since 2013, Virat Kohli has scored the most runs in test cricket in India, he has scored 3629 runs in 43 tests at an average of 61.5. The podium is completed by Cheteshwar Pujara in 2nd place (3109 runs in 44 matches at an average of 49.34) and Rohit Sharma in 3rd place (2002 runs in 24 matches at an average of 66.73). Three of them made India’s top 4 one of the strongest in the world, and that is where they usually won the other half of the battle. But of course, one of the biggest factors fueling India’s dominance is the Indian pitches and conditions. Visitors find these pitches extremely difficult to play on. Since the onset of the dominant period, India has gradually made the pitches suit their playing style more and made them harder to bat on. This combined with a great team led by a fierce captain and coach has made India one of the most dominant sides of all time.
Can England Bazball their Way Through India?
Teams visiting India have tried patience, they have tried to play out the difficult overs and then counterattack. But the fundamental problem with this approach is patience against spin. It’s like using a piece of meat to fend off a lion. Too much patience and defensive cricket against spin will most likely end up in a wicket. The only effective way to bat against spin is positive cricket and aggressively putting the pressure back on the bowler. There’s a pattern amongst the finest batters against spin - their ability to counterattack and play aggressive cricket. Australia, South Africa, and others have tried to survive on Indian wickets instead of attacking, and this is what could set England apart. The Bazball approach is simple, play positive cricket that makes you win. And this is going to be England’s greatest strength in this series.
Bazball is positive cricket and is inherently composed of every ingredient needed for success in India. But success against spin isn’t just aggressive cricket. It’s test cricket, you need patience to do well, and England has to find a way to play smart aggressive cricket. And they have all the pieces necessary to do so.
Their lead batter, Joe Root is arguably the greatest test batter of the modern era. He has scored more than 11,000 runs in the last 10 years, and he has done so very efficiently. He is a master of spin and he has put his phenomenal batting on display in all but the 2021 tour of India. Root is a classic test batsman, taking his time to settle in and bat the opposition out of the game. But, McCullum and Stokes demanded a higher urgency while batting, they demanded a proactive approach, and Root delivered. His greatness lies in his ability to adapt his batting style to conditions and the team plan. And Root has taken aid of his favorite attacking shot, the ramp, which he has quietly mastered over the past few years. Root’s stellar record in India works in England’s favor. He is the only non-Indian to feature on the top 10 run scorers in India since 2013 list. And this time, he’s not just going to be a silent killer, he’s going to come out all guns blazing. Here’s a little stat: Joe Root’s strike rate in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023 was 46.32, 56.85, 63.76, and 76.33. In two years of Bazball, Root has increased his strike rate massively, and he’s done this whilst maintaining a phenomenal average. In fact, he’s averaging 65.58 in 14 innings whilst scoring 787 runs. This is his best batting average in a calendar year since 2014. He hit more sixes in 2023 than 2016-2022 combined. This just goes on to describe Joe Root’s greatness. And this greatness will have to be England’s biggest strength if they want to win. Root batting at a high strike rate whilst maintaining a high average will weaken India’s bowling, and put England on top.
To talk about the English skipper - Ben Stokes, arguably the greatest all-rounder of the modern era, will have to take on two great all-rounders in Ashwin and Jadeja. Stokes has been good with the bat, masterful with the ball, and a genius with the captain’s hat on him. He’ll go all out, on an aggressive approach, and if it fails for a couple of games, he won’t revert back to traditional methods, he didn’t do it in the Ashes, and he won’t do it in this series. Stokes has about every feather on his hat except one, a series win in India, and being the only captain to do this in over a decade will put him on an elite list. His masterful captaincy in Pakistan won them the historic series victory, but India is going to be a different kettle of fish.
Jack Leach will have to be England’s lead bowler, he will have to play a similar role to what Graeme Swann played in England’s 2012 series victory. Bowling the hard overs, bowling 20-30 overs per day, and as the summer sets in across India, it will be a difficult series for him. He has been effective and was good in England’s 2021 tour of India, and he will be looking for vengeance this time around. Indian batters have been weak against left-arm orthodox spin for a while now. Since 2021, against left-arm orthodox spin, only Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel have had a 40+ average. The table below highlights the full stats of Indian batters against left-arm orthodox spin since 2021. Leach being a left-arm orthodox bowler will be licking his fingers right now, turning tracks will just make his case stronger. Rank turners are lotteries, some balls will turn, some won't, and a couple of good performances are enough to force a test win. If the BCCI is foolish enough to prepare rank turners, similar to Indore 2023 vs Australia, Jack Leach will have a ball, and be England’s biggest weapon against the Indian batting lineup.
This will most definitely be the last India tour for the 41-year-old James Anderson. A phenomenal career, filled with victories and trophies has seen everything there is to see in cricket. Yet there he is, with a fresh haircut, running through trying to give everything he’s got so England tastes victory again. Winning in India might be his final dream, and he will have a big role to play in getting there. The ball doesn’t swing as much in India, but it does enough for Jimmy Anderson to do his magic. The new SG ball has decent movement, and on grounds like Visakhapatnam and Dharamshala, the ball will swing for a few good overs. And once it gets old enough, Jimmy will have to deploy his weapon of reverse swing. This will be a big series for him and might be one of his last, a legendary career will appropriately get its final chance to do the impossible.
These are the key pieces that will lead England to victory. And if all of them work well, there is no batter, or bowler that can stop England from Bazballing their way through. Of course, there are obvious weaknesses with the Bazball approach, and Indian conditions can also have the opposite effect in Bazball backfiring. Facing spin and turning tracks can be challenging for batsmen. The key is to adopt an aggressive approach, but it must be controlled and intelligent. Otherwise, India will prevail over Bazball. And this might happen for a match or two, where England’s aggression is misguided and they are outplayed, but a 5-match series is plenty of time to learn and adapt to the conditions. England has everything needed to win against India, and although India will start as favorites, without Virat Kohli for the first two tests they will be vulnerable. At the end of the day, this series won’t and shouldn’t decide Bazball’s fate. Bazball has worked and does work, but, like any other approach, it has its fair share of weaknesses and fallacies, and sometimes being persistent with it can lead to losses. But India is a difficult place to conquer, no team has done it in the last 10 years, and if Bazball can't conquer India, it will be because it is difficult to win in India, not because Bazball is ineffective. And as much as the Indian fans will like to deny it, they are scared at the proposition of a series loss this time, the most scared they have been for a home test series in a while. Can England do the impossible? Can Ben Stokes make history? Regardless of the result, this is going to be a fascinating battle, and I will be there covering every bit of action throughout the next month. See you all in Hyderabad tomorrow.
Looking forward to it