England legend unimpressed with ‘Bazball’
The English legend said ‘Bazball’ may charm the audience but certainly made the team forget its main motto, i.e., winning the game
After going down 0-1 in the Ashes series against Australia, Ben Stokes’ England will reappear with their ‘Bazball’ in London at Lord’s on Wednesday. The decision to declare innings at 393 for 8 in the first innings of the Edgbaston Test may not have yielded positive results but the hosts don’t regret it. Instead, they are determined to come back harder with the same approach in the rest of the series. However, a few greats of the game didn’t find it a good idea to be applied in the longest format.
Sir Geoffrey Boycott is one of those who isn’t much impressed with England’s way of playing Test cricket. Speaking in the Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast, the English legend said ‘Bazball’ may charm the audience but certainly made the team forget its main motto, i.e., winning the game.
“I enjoyed the cricket, it kept you on the edge of your seat.
“England were winning every session, but they didn’t win the match, and that should tell them something for the next Test. They lost sight of the fact that the object is to win and then if you want to entertain then yes, by all means,” Boycott said.
“But why can’t you win and entertain? When you get ahead of yourself – and that’s what England did – they stopped thinking.
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“If you’re going to just entertain, they might as well be a circus. That’s it, go be a professional circus around the world. If you ask people in England ‘Do you want to win the Ashes, or do you want to entertain and lose?’, I know what the answer will be,” he added.
It has been a notable fact that England’s record in Test cricket has certainly improved by several notches ever since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took charge as coach and captain respectively. England have won 11 out of their 14 matches, with the loss at Edgbaston being their third defeat during this period.
