Ashes: Bazball is also about Bazbaiting and playing cricket like kids at maidan

More than the batting, which is obvious to the eye, it’s in how they bowl and set the field that England’s Bazball truly shines. Always attack, even in defense, and never let the game drift seems to be the mantra – and they stick to it rather religiously.In many ways, their Bazball is almost straight out of gully / maidan cricket. Bazball, when you poke at it, is how kids would play cricket: a joyous abandon, easily bored, risk-taking urges, a seeming lack of patience and keenness to create something. It has innovation as a default – the quick declaration to make use of the few minutes as the sun was sinking. In many ways, skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have a child’s view of how to play this game.At one point for Cameron Green, they had a short cover, short mid-off, short mid-on, with mid-off and mid-on – absolutely packing that straight ‘V’ for the Aussie all-rounder who likes to drive straight. This strange field setting was also put in place to exploit Green’s other flaw – falling over a touch when trying to work across the line.

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— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 17, 2023
For Travis Head, when England went for the bumper barrage, they had a squarish short leg, a shortish backward square-leg, a deepish silly point, shortish gully, and a short third man. All the close-in men for the blind shovel-stab that Head does, and the short third in case he arches for the upper cut.
For opener David Warner, such was the line of attack from round the stumps from Stuart Broad, that one could feel the claustrophobia ramping up each over. Broad who was more assured on first evening, getting that front foot out, was increasingly playing from crease before he perished going for the release shot off a well-outside off ball.

The dangerous Travis Head departs for 5️⃣0️⃣
And Moeen Ali has his first wicket back in whites 👏 #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/ZlkqUtrSnW
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 17, 2023
Constantly innovative, always striving for possible chances, their charismatic captain Stokes re-aligned their field at angles not always explored other teams in modern-day cricket.
Even Stokes’s bowling changes reflect that child’s view of the game. Like he brought on Harry Brook as soon as Steve Smith came in. Brook has the surprise of an irregular, has the skill to wobble the ball, and his line-length is naturally erratic that it can surprise someone like Smith, who plans so thoroughly for the opposition that he might be caught unawares this move. Like how R Ashwin once said that he discovered the best ball to bowl to Virender Sehwag at nets (after his regular stuff was being repeatedly walloped) was to consciously bowl “bad balls”.

It’s happened again! 😅
Live clips/Scorecard: https://t.co/TZMO0eJDwY
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— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 17, 2023
He got on Joe Root, not a totally irregular bowler of course, but who has the ability to bowl like a batsman; the index-finger on the seam sending a skilful in-curler to a surprised Khawaja who hurriedly stabbed. Or have the audacity and imagination to follow a full pitched ball that was thwacked Green to boundary with a wondrously slow tossed up ball – almost a la Ramesh Powar that Green dabbed as if in trance.
And when Stokes brought himself on to bowl, that smarts again came through. All along, other seamers have largely tried to angle the ball across Khawaja, Stokes instead repeatedly nipped the ball back in or straightening it. And he then got Smith with a nip-backer. Earlier, they had two leg slips for Smith, and one leg slip constantly floated until the bitter end.
The Bazball when bowling – time to coin a new name, let’s call it Bazbaiting – was seen in England’s victorious tour of Pakan. Barring West Indies in their heyday, rarely has a non-subcontinental team won in the subcontinent playing as aggressive as England did to achieve a horic 3-0 whitewash in a Test series in Pakan. With Pakan’s inexperienced bowling – their main fast bowlers were all injured- and the batting-friendly pitches, England’s flamboyant batting wasn’t a surprise. But their bowling, especially the field-set, on these pitches were something else.
An umbrella field close on the leg side, usually Pakani batsmen’s strong areas, stood waiting for an aerial flick. The bowling was imaginative, more than a couple wickets fell to leg-side catches the wicketkeepers; in the past, a dismissal which seemed unfortunate now seemed a deliberate conscious effort from the fielding team. If the batsmen showed patience, then the seamers formed a ring on the off side, consently inviting a drive. And then in the final game, they unleashed the young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed who took a five-for on debut to spin the game England’s way.

Back bowling for England.Back taking a MASSIVE wicket.
The captain strikes! 🔥 #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/Lk22fWp6bM
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 17, 2023
In the past, even Australia under Steve Waugh couldn’t achieve this effect. In fact in the failed attempt in 2011, in what was called their last frontier, Waugh’s men’s learning was they they were too attacking with their bowling. And so when they returned next time under Adam Gilchr, their bowlers shifted to a well-outside off line, moving away from the stumps, in hope that their smartly defensive approach would do the trick. It did. Seldom, though, has a team worked so aggressively in the subcontinent as England did in Pakan. This was Stokes and McCullum’s first series in this region and the world had waited to watch how ‘Bazball’ would hold up. It did. Now the Bazbaiting is on at the Ashes as well.
There would be critics carping of course on the attention-lacking syndrome of it all but it perhaps is the best approach especially on the flat track they have served up for the first Test. Bat fast, then throw the Bazbait seems to be their approach; for what it is worth, it’s making Test cricket sexy.