England’s captivating Test revival has mirrored the revolution its white-ball team underwent following the 2015 World Cup in Australia, led by captain Eoin Morgan and coach Trevor Bayliss.
Since adopting its swashbuckling style of cricket, colloquially dubbed ‘Bazball’, England has won 11 of their 13 Tests under Brendon McCullum’s guidance, with no series defeats. It’s a remarkable turnaround considering the team had won just one of their previous 17 Tests, including an embarrassing Ashes drubbing in 2021/22.
Head coach Chris Silverwood, batting mentor Graham Thorpe and managing director Ashley Giles lost their jobs after the embarrassing 4-0 series defeat in Australia. James Anderson and Stuart Broad, England’s best bowlers, were unceremoniously axed, and Joe Root stood down as captain after a five-year reign.
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Robert Key, the team’s new managing director, appointed McCullum and Ben Stokes to take charge of England’s rebuild, and the New Zealand-born duo immediately set about creating a team culture that prioritised enjoyment and selflessness.
Rather than allowing players to fret about external voices and public opinion, McCullum and Stokes emphasised the importance of batting with freedom and casting doubt from their minds. There should be no fear of failure; losing was not the end of the world.
Players were celebrated for what they could do on the cricket field, rather than what they couldn’t, and McCullum spent time working on the team’s mindset instead of their technique.
McCullum and Stokes were also determined to reinvigorate Test cricket as an entity, ensuring the product remained entertaining for its fanbase. Winning, in their eyes, was a by-product of the spectacle.
Even in their most recent defeat, a thrilling one-run loss to New Zealand in Wellington, England was box office.
“(McCullum and Stokes) are trying to instil in the players that this is the business of entertainment at the end of the day,” former England bowler Isa Guha told Fox Cricket last year.
“You’ve got to make it entertaining to watch if you want to bring people to the game and inspire people to play cricket.”
Every player immediately bought into the ‘Bazball’ phenomenon, to their benefit. Ollie Pope has cemented his status as England’s long-term No. 3, Jonny Bairstow has revived his Test career, while Anderson and Broad are still at the peak of their powers.
“Nothing is impossible for this team,” Guha continued.
“They may not be the best Test team, but they will certainly be the boldest.”
BATTING WITH ‘ABSOLUTELY NO FEAR’
Contrary to popular belief, ‘Bazball’ is not just about slogging. The batting is brave and at times frantic, but not reckless.
However, the fundamentals of Test batting, instilled in the sport over 140 years — protecting your wicket, knowing where off stump is, leaving loose deliveries — have been largely abandoned under McCullum’s watch.
England’s run rate under Stokes sits at 4.65, which a generation ago would have been considered decent in ODI matches. In comparison, Australia and India have scored at 3.37 and 3.24 respectively during the same period.
When tasked with chasing a 296-run target against New Zealand at Headingley last year, England knocked it off in just 54.2 overs, with Bairstow finishing unbeaten on 71 (44).
The following week, England pulled off their highest successful run chase in Test history, reaching the 378-run target against India in less than 77 overs. No team had previously completed more than three 250-plus run chases in a calendar year; England achieved it four times in the space of five weeks.
“They’re almost ripping up the textbook of what’s generally been required for Test match cricket,” former England captain Michael Vaughan told Fox Cricket this week.
“They’ll be playing (Scott Boland) like a spinner. They’ll be running down, trying to get outside off stump, they’ll be trying to whip it on the off side.
“It’s very, very difficult to play against, they’re an energised team. They do play with absolutely no fear.
“They’re a Ferrari … they don’t have a brake in their cars.”
Highest team run rate in Tests by captain
4.65 – Ben Stokes
3.66 – Steve Waugh
3.58 – Clem Hill
3.55 – Kumar Sangakkara
3.52 – Pat Cummins
DRAWS ARE OFF THE TABLE
For England, draws are not an option. All 13 of their Tests under McCullum have had a result, with the team philosophy revolving around trying to win matches as quickly as possible.
During last year’s second Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, England was 4-139 at tea on day five chasing a 299-run target. Most Test sides would have settled for the draw, but McCullum rubbished the notion — even if No. 11 James Anderson were at the crease, they would fight for the win.
Bairstow cracked 93 runs from 44 balls in the evening session, including 17 boundaries, on his way to 136, with England finishing the job in 50 overs. ‘Bazball’ had officially arrived.
“That was probably the moment of ultimate clarity that we‘re going for the win, we’re going to entertain,” Broad recalled in December.
“These people haven‘t bought day five tickets to watch us block it for an hour, they want to see us hit fours and sixes.”
When asked if England would continue pursuing wins regardless of the match situation in the upcoming Ashes series, Stokes didn’t hesitate with his response.
“We’ll keep doing the same things we’ve done,” Stokes told Sky Sports earlier this year.
“There’s no point changing what we’ve done over the last year, just because we’re now coming into an Ashes series.
“Every player knows the Ashes is where everything just ramps up a little bit. But we’ll keep sticking to what we do. Me and Baz have been around enough, our senior players have been around enough to understand that and make sure those little things don’t creep in.”
BAFFLING DUCKETT STAT
No player better encapsulates how England has overhauled its approach to red-ball cricket than opener Ben Duckett. Since returning to the England set-up last year, Duckett has faced 710 deliveries at Test level, leaving only eight of them, which equates to about 1.1 per cent.
Invigorated by England’s new attacking mentality, the left-hander has been unafraid to play his natural game in the Test arena, attacking loose deliveries and scoring freely in the middle, regardless of the match situation.
“It’s ridiculously different,” Duckett said of England’s Test set-up earlier this year.
“The way that they make everyone feel is something that I never thought would be the case in Test cricket. It’s almost like you’re playing a friendly, you’re actually going out and playing a Test match and it’s that relaxed, and that’s how you’re going to get players to perform at their best.”
Duckett has been Test cricket’s most prolific opening batter since his long-awaited recall in December, accumulating 690 runs in six matches with a staggering strike rate of 97.18, which betters David Warner’s ODI strike rate.
During last week’s Ashes dress rehearsal, a comfortable 10-wicket victory against Ireland at Lord’s, Duckett clobbered a career-best 182 (178) and toppled Sir Donald Bradman’s 93-year record for the fastest 150 at the iconic venue.
SURPRISE BENEFICIARIES OF ‘BAZBALL’
‘Bazball’ is synonymous with attacking batting, but England’s bowlers have arguably benefited just as much, if not more, from the team’s new-found approach.
Wickets are always the priority, and fields are set with the sole purpose of getting the opposition out, never to stem the flow of runs. The run rate, in their eyes, was irrelevant.
England’s bowlers have learnt to remain patient and not panic when they leak a couple of boundaries, allowing themselves to focus on producing wicket-taking deliveries rather than hunting dot balls.
“The mantra within the group is how do we take wickets? Every time we‘ve got the ball in our hand, how are we going to try and get this guy out?” McCullum told Sky Sports.
“If you go for runs, you go for runs, but we’ll back ourselves in and try and chase those runs down later on.
“I think once you have that mindset and you free yourself up from having to worry about runs, it allows you to at least look at things with a positive mantra.”
This new aggressive mindset has worked wonders for England’s bowlers, who have taken all ten wickets in 25 consecutive Test innings under the ‘Bazball’ regime. Not once since McCullum’s appointment has the opposition declared or chased down a fourth-innings target.
Importantly, the team’s high batting tempo gives the bowlers additional time to take 20 wickets, relieving further pressure. England’s strike rate with the ball during the Bazball era has been 52.3, while in the previous 12 months it was 63.8.
“The bowlers have had to go alright, we’re going to keep these catchers in, which means I might go for more boundaries and I might go for more runs. I will not be going at two and a half an over,” former England batter Mark Butcher explained to Sky Sports in December.
“But in doing so and allowing the opposition to be able to score a little bit faster, that also is putting time back into the game and it‘s also creating more chances for you to take wickets.
“It’s completely selfless.”
Spinner Jack Leach has been critical over the past 12 months, holding down one end with tight spells so England’s quicks can attack at the other. The left-armer has taken a team-high 45 wickets across 13 Tests, conceding 3.33 runs per over during the period.
It’s why Leach’s injury setback was perhaps a bigger loss for England ahead of the Ashes than Jofra Archer, who is an X-factor, but not instrumental to the team’s recent success.
Leach was replaced by Mooen Ali, who has come out of retirement for the marquee series — the off-spinner has taken 20 Ashes wickets at 64.65, and Australia’s middle order will no doubt be targeting him over the next seven weeks.
ANY OPPOSITION, ANY CONDITIONS
Despite England’s success in the 2022 home summer, some of Australia’s players remained sceptical.
“It’s certainly been entertaining,” Australian vice-captain Steve Smith said last year.
“If you come on a wicket that’s got some grass and Josh Hazlewood, (Pat) Cummins and (Mitchell) Starc are rolling in at you, is it going to be the same?”
However, England has proven time and time again they can execute their plan against any opposition in any conditions.
England travelled to the subcontinent for a three-Test campaign against Pakistan late last year, with fans questioning how ‘Bazball’ would fare overseas.
Despite the foreign and inhospitable conditions, including a lifeless Rawalpindi deck, England found a way to force a result in all three matches through attacking fields, bold declarations and some other-worldly batting.
On day one of the Rawalpindi Test, England hammered 506 runs in 75 overs, including four centuries, breaking a 112-year-old record for most runs on the first day of a Test match.
The series opener still looked destined to finish as a draw after the hosts registered 579 in their first innings, but Stokes’ brave declaration set Pakistan a 343-run target with 130 overs to play.
The England skipper dangled the carrot, and Pakistan couldn’t resist.
England secured victory about 15 minutes before stumps would have been called on day five, having taken 20 wickets in 251.3 overs in the field. A few months earlier, Australia’s bowlers only mustered three wickets in 239 overs at the same venue in almost identical conditions.
England’s unfathomable 74-run triumph proved ‘Bazball’ revolution was no gimmick.
“Lots of questions will keep coming about Bazball and the style, but they keep answering them emphatically at the moment,” Butcher said at the time.
“There were still some people that needed some convincing during the summer that it was the right way to go about it … I think they‘ve won pretty much everybody over now.”
ONE LINGERING WEAKNESS
If Bazball had a vulnerability, it would be swing. England suffered a heavy innings defeat to South Africa at Lord’s last year after Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje wreaked havoc with the hooping Dukes ball in London.
England was rolled for 164 and 149, but ultimately won the low-scoring series 2-1.
“Bazball didn’t work that Test,” Australian opener David Warner smirked at the time.
Meanwhile, England’s batters remains susceptible to good length deliveries that pitch six-to-eight metres from the crease. According to CricViz, England has averaged 33.06 with a strike rate of 52 when facing balls at this length in Tests over the past 12 months.
It’s a stark contrast to their scoring rate against full deliveries (strike rate of 94) and short balls (strike rate of 85) during that same period.
Boland therefore looms as a crucial figure in Australia’s bowling attack — according to CricViz, no Test cricketer since 2006 has landed a higher percentage of deliveries in that good length zone.
Regardless of what happens over the coming six weeks, two things are certain – the cricket will be entertaining, and England’s players will be smiling the entire time.
“I can‘t think, both in English cricketing terms and indeed more recently in general sporting terms, of a more rapid turnaround,” former England captain Mike Atherton told Sky Sports.
“Obviously things had to change in April, but I don‘t think anybody could have guessed how quickly the transformation would come.”
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