Ravichandran Ashwin termed Bazball a defenseless cricket and was surprised to see Joe Root, who has a solid batting technique, adopting the same approach.
Ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin opened up on his views on England’s Bazball approach in red-ball cricket after clinched the five-match Test series 4-1. It was a dominant show from the hosts as Ben Stokes and Co’s Bazball brand of cricket faltered on the Indian conditions. England took an early 1-0 lead in the series after the Hyderabad Test but India bounced back in style to crush England in the last four Tests.
Ravichandran Ashwin gave his take on England’s bazball approach
The Bazball did stun India in Hyderabad as Ollie Pope and other English batters troubled India with their reverse-sweep shots. However, the Indian spinners tweaked their plans in the remaining matches to counter them.
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However, England were high on confidence after the Hyderabad Test and James Anderson even backed his team to chase down 600 in the second Test which many called overconfident and an over-the-top comment
“The chat last night from the coach (Brendon McCullum) was that if they get 600, we were going to go for it. It makes it very clear to everyone that we will try to do it tomorrow. I know there are 180 overs left in the game, but we will try to do it in 60 or 70. That’s the way we play, and we saw that tonight with Rehan (Ahmed) going out and playing his shots,” Anderson said during the second Test.
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In his latest YouTube video, Ashwin shared his views on the Bazball and talked about Anderson’s comments as he asserted that England had gone too far with such claims.
“James Anderson went into a press conference in the second Test after winning the first considerably well. Much respect to them for winning that. He told the press that even if the 4th innings target was 500 or 600, we’ll finish it in 60 overs. Even though it was an example of their positive mindset, it felt like they had gone too far,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
The veteran spinner also termed Bazball a defenseless cricket and was surprised to see Joe Root, who has a solid batting technique, adopting the same approach.
“The one thing I understood after the first Test is that Bazball isn’t just aggressive cricket. It is defenseless cricket. They aren’t going to play a defensive shot at all. They are going to get out if they play defense. To my surprise, Joe Root also agreed to their game plan. Because if you take world cricket’s vest defense rankings, Root is an easy number 1 on that list against spin. He also bought into their approach,” the 37-year-old said.
