Boycott blasts Bazball: England are in danger of reducing the Ashes to an exhibition

[sage]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/06/21/england-entertainers-cricketers-winning-ashes-everything/

 

Team have got it back to front – it is not about entertaining and then winning, it is about winning first

SIR GEOFFREY BOYCOTT

 

 

Quote

England have got carried away with Bazball and seem to think entertaining is more important than winning. But England supporters want one thing more than anything else – to win the Ashes. Scoring fast runs, whacking lots of fours and sixes is lovely. It is great. But only if England do not lose sight of the big prize which is to beat Australia.

If at the end of the series Australia go home with the Ashes we will feel sick, regardless of how much we have been entertained.

They are in danger of letting hubris be their downfall or, quoting William Shakespeare in Hamlet, being hoist by one’s own petard. They are going to defeat themselves. It would be sad if playing exciting cricket for a year is going to their heads.

By all means entertain but cricket is like chess. There are moments when you need to defend. Sometimes you need to be patient and accept it.

Do not just attack, attack, attack. England need a bit of common sense and pragmatism. That is all that is required.

They do not have to change being positive because they are a better side than Australia and will win if they just show that common sense. When they are on top, be ruthless and not sloppy. We kept getting ahead of Australia and then letting them back in by being careless. They gave Australia a get out of jail free card. I find that silly.

I listened to Stuart Broad during the Test. He is a good example. In an interview he said it does not matter if we lose if we have entertained. No, no and no. It does matter. 

If England are not playing to win then these Ashes Tests are not that important. They are only exhibition matches. 

They have got it back to front. It is not about entertaining and then winning. It is about winning first. The greatest golfer on the planet, Jack Nicklaus, said he did not mind what position he was at the end of the first three rounds. All he cared about was being top after the fourth round.

England outplayed Australia in nearly every session at Edgbaston but lost. That is what Nicklaus was talking about.

The rule is to get as many runs as you can when the pitch is good before it deteriorates. England might have scored another 40-50 runs with Root on a hundred and Ollie Robinson, who can bat, but declared to get a wicket. 

When they batted in the second innings they went crazy. England were scoring at five and six an over but for some reason batsmen were trying to score at more than that and got themselves out. There were five: Ben Duckett, Root, Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali. It was unnecessary.

Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have rightly received a lot of praise for the way they have changed the attitude around the England team but playing just one way is not using your brain. If we are more interested in praise than winning then we have it wrong.

I and many ex-players think this England team have the beating of these Aussies. But do not waste that talent and commitment by letting it go to your head. 

There is no debate that Ben Foakes is a better keeper than Bairstow. But nobody can assume that Foakes would have taken the catches and stumping that Bairstow missed. Would he have made the 78 runs like Bairstow did in the first innings?

It is not new a new idea picking the best keeper but it never lasts. Very quickly England have reverted to the batsman- keeper because sometimes specialist wicket keepers miss chances as well and they do not score as many runs under pressure as the batsman-keeper.

Jonny’s wicketkeeping problems stem from a lack of cricket. He is rusty. Personally, I would have let him bat and keep wicket for Yorkshire in all their matches and picked him for the third Test at Headingley because he needed competitive cricket after such a bad injury and long lay off.

My only concern with his batting is that whenever he plays a sweep or reverse sweep he gets out. He is not good at picking the length or line of the ball. He is a tremendous hitter over the top so why not belt the spinner out of the ground that way. It does not make any sense to play the sweeps because the rest of the team do.

As I forecast, Ben Duckett came unstuck opening the face of the bat and steering it through gully. It is his favourite scoring arc but I wrote he needed to be careful against the better bowlers with more pace. Against a quicker attack the ball can slip off the face and it is not as easy to control. What he wants to do is play straighter to mid off and back to the bowler. Or leave the ball. Then, if he gets in against the old ball it is a different game. 

England do not need to change much for the next Test. If Moeen’s finger is hurt then just play Mark Wood and let Root bowl spin. There is usually always something in it for seamers at Lord’s with the slope. Wood’s extra pace protects Stokes a bit and it lessens the strain on 40-year-old Jimmy Anderson and 36-year-old Broad.

 

 

[zen]

Everyone has an opinion but at the end of the day England would pursue what it has planned for. 
 

Need to allow teams breathing space to get their act right. Success does not come overnight and Eng has made a conscious move to drive change in its cricket. 

 

Eng only lost a close game and there is still a lot of cricket remaining!

Edited June 21, 2023 by zen

[Majestic]

The traditional approach wasn't working for these modern day England batters anyways. One doesn't need to look beyond the performance of England batters between 2015-2021. Barring Root, everyone else averaged 35 or below.

 

Baz ball is what suits them and has given them the best win percentage. This is a strong Australian side with everyone in top 7 good enough to change the complexion of the game and each of the bowlers can win matches on their day too. A traditional approach at best would have given England a draw.

 

The only thing that England can work on is to not go over the top and make reckless decisions which cause them a loss. That declaration wasn't required at that time because their tailenders have good technique to survive and let Root and co add even 50 more runs.

[vvvslaxman]

Bazball works for England atleast temporarily. They are likely to reach WTC final with this method. Traditional approach they were going nowhere.

[Sean Bradley]

3 hours ago, zen said:

Everyone has an opinion but at the end of the day England would pursue what it has planned for. 
 

Need to allow teams breathing space to get their act right. Success does not come overnight and Eng has made a conscious move to drive change in its cricket. 

 

Eng only lost a close game and there is still a lot of cricket remaining!

No England did not lose the game, they let Australia win with their carelessness, and Boycott is rightly pointing it out, What a genius!

[Lone Wolf]

They are facing a string Aussie side...  Maybe the best since 2003 Punter's men. 

It wasn't gonna be this easy.  But BazBall is their best shot against them. 

They need to sort out their bowling.  Anderson getting unfit was the difference & obv dropped catches of Bairstow. 

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, Sean Bradley said:

No England did not lose the game, they let Australia win with their carelessness, and Boycott is rightly pointing it out, What a genius!

 

Australia had some luck going their way. Bairstow's mediocre keeping alone played a big role. Then that Stokes drop. Usually he takes such catches.

[vvvslaxman]

13 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

They are facing a string Aussie side...  Maybe the best since 2003 Punter's men. 

It wasn't gonna be this easy.  But BazBall is their best shot against them. 

They need to sort out their bowling.  Anderson getting unfit was the difference & obv dropped catches of Bairstow. 

 

They can score faster. But they must bat longer shouldn't declare. It gives rest for their bowlers. 

[diga]

1 minute ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

They can score faster. But they must bat longer shouldn't declare. It gives rest for their bowlers. 

Declaring in the first innings with an established batsman with a 100+ score was a big blunder... Would have understood the declaration if it was two tailenders

[rkt.india]

4 hours ago, Majestic said:

The traditional approach wasn't working for these modern day England batters anyways. One doesn't need to look beyond the performance of England batters between 2015-2021. Barring Root, everyone else averaged 35 or below.

 

Baz ball is what suits them and has given them the best win percentage. This is a strong Australian side with everyone in top 7 good enough to change the complexion of the game and each of the bowlers can win matches on their day too. A traditional approach at best would have given England a draw.

 

The only thing that England can work on is to not go over the top and make reckless decisions which cause them a loss. That declaration wasn't required at that time because their tailenders have good technique to survive and let Root and co add even 50 more runs.

bazball is suiting them only because of the flat pitches they have played till now. let them prepare a green pitch like they usually do against us then we will see what the bazball does.  

[rkt.india]

3 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

Bazball works for England atleast temporarily. They are likely to reach WTC final with this method. Traditional approach they were going nowhere.

On this kind of a pitch, even traditional cricket will work. flat, hard, no seam or swing. it is like playing with pink and saying it does more than red ball but forgetting, you are making much greener pitches for pink ball so obviously it will do more than the red ball. Make green pitch now like that Lord pitch against India and try playing bazball. 

 

real test of bazball will be on a pitch like this. on flat pitch like Edgabston last test, even normal cricket can be suffice.      

 

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by rkt.india

[Tattieboy]

The problem with this is Boycott didn't bat to win he batted for Geoffrey Boycott that's why he got dropped in the sixties after scoring a hundred and why Botham deliberately ran him out in New Zealand . 

The vast majority in this country have bought into this style of cricket , they are paid up members of this rollercoaster . How long will it last who knows but nobody can't say it's not been a much better of playing for England results wise than the dross that was dished up playing the " Geoffrey Boycott" way in recent years . 

Just to reiterate this is now England's style of cricket the English women start their Ashes today and have picked  their one day team for the test against the mighty Aussie women's side , no idea if it will work but again it's gripped the public's imagination and Trent bridge will be full to see if it does . 

[Tattieboy]

5 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

On this kind of a pitch, even traditional cricket will work. flat, hard, no seam or swing. it is like playing with pink and saying it does more than red ball but forgetting, you are making much greener pitches for pink ball so obviously it will do more than the red ball. Make green pitch now like that Lord pitch against India and try playing bazball.      

Why are you so worked up about how England play? If the English public love it what's it to you sitting in India ?  

[rkt.india]

25 minutes ago, Tattieboy said:

Why are you so worked up about how England play? If the English public love it what's it to you sitting in India ?  

because that is not test cricket, scoop, reverse scoops, reverse sweeps. this ugly stuff is not test cricket. Do that how much you want in T20 but for a purist like me, it is ugly and is the beginning of the death of test cricket. it will be like playing T20 cricket for five days. i anyway despise T20 cricket.    

[Tattieboy]

11 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

because that is not test cricket, scoop, reverse scoops, reverse sweeps. this ugly stuff is not test cricket. Do that how much you want in T20 but for a purist like me, it is ugly and is the beginning of the death of test cricket. it will be like playing T20 cricket for five days. i anyway despise T20 cricket.    

Show me where it is written down test cricket must be played a certain way . I was a purist  when i played and was very lucky to play against some of the best players in the world of my generation but that was then and this is now . This is the generation of quick fix , they don't have time to watch cricket for 6 hours whilst being on their mobile phones 18hours a day . Test cricket is dying, very few countries want to play it , players don't want to play it and spectators don't want to watch it . It is a loss making part of cricket and I hate to say this but your country will kill off test cricket completely and probably sooner than we think , franchise cricket will take over cricket and cricket players . England are not killing off test cricket they are trying to save it just not in the way you and me are used to seeing it being played . 

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, rkt.india said:

On this kind of a pitch, even traditional cricket will work. flat, hard, no seam or swing. it is like playing with pink and saying it does more than red ball but forgetting, you are making much greener pitches for pink ball so obviously it will do more than the red ball. Make green pitch now like that Lord pitch against India and try playing bazball. 

 

real test of bazball will be on a pitch like this. on flat pitch like Edgabston last test, even normal cricket can be suffice.      

 

 

 

They don't have good enough players to survive playing traditional cricket. Crawley was mediocre playing like that. 

[vvvslaxman]

India did try to ape in a subtle way in the WTC final. But played like di*ks.  England has great batting depth. Even 2 bastmen clicking would do. India has a series of has-beens. Trying bazball with that line up is suicidal. For ENgland ROot is in prime form. Bairstow hasn't lost any form. Then there is Brooks. If needed they can even include Curran.

[Bigg Brother]

Barring Root they have no one averaging 40+. All are medicore 35+ averaging batsmen. Even Bairstow has found rhythm since he started playing like he plays as ODI opener. Crawley won't find place in any team but here he has played 30+ tests just because Baz believes in him. The thing is these theatrics work against substandard and mediocre teams like India and Pakistan but Australia is tough one to beat with this antics, even NZ defeated them, SA had a close series,too. 

[LordPrabhzy]

3 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

Why are you so worked up about how England play? If the English public love it what's it to you sitting in India ?  

 

Lets look at it objectively. Every Test match pre Bazball era ( atleast with the Top 6 test teams) in England were sell outs. So its not about English public loving Bazball more like Test cricket.

 

Although I agree that test cricket is dying and the spectators now who come to watch matches are mostly 30+ years old male which is like 2 generations, so the same spectators will be around for the next 10 years atleast. The reluctance of other Teams to play bold test cricket wont bring in any spectators and India doing atrocious in cricket generally is not a good sign. I believe that Test cricket should finish ( and that me saying as a purist) and Ashes should continue as a exhibition series every couple of years as its the only series worth watching and providing passion and entertainment at the same time

[Suhaan]

Time for England to implement Rohit's Gazball and see the difference

Only strategy which has no strategy

Edited June 22, 2023 by Suhaan