The fifth and the final test match between India and England will be played from tomorrow (7 March) at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, Dharamshala and though India has won the series by 3-1, still the Indian team will try their best to continue with their winning streak.
Ben Stokes-led England team started with a bang as they won the first test match of the 5-match series but after that, they lost the next three test matches and lost the series as well.
Since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have taken over as the skipper and the coach, respectively, the England cricket team has adopted an aggressive approach which they have named as Bazball. The England cricket team tasted success for quite a long period after adopting the Bazball approach and the tour to India was considered as the biggest exam of Bazball. However, they have certainly failed as this is the first series that they have lost ever since they have been playing with the Bazball style.
Many former cricketers including Nasser Hussain slammed the English team for continuing with Bazball despite losing three consecutive test matches to India but instead of accepting that playing with the aggressive approach has hampered their chances of winning the series, the English cricketers came up with weird arguments to justify their situation.
If you remember, the England cricketer Ben Duckett tried to defend Bazball by saying that England should get the credit for encouraging other players such as Yashasvi Jaiswal for playing aggressively in test cricket. Ben Duckett was slammed by many former England cricketers after this statement and former Aussie skipper Michael Clarke trolled Ben Duckett by saying that it seems he hasn’t seen Australian cricketers such as Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, etc. playing because there have been quite a few Aussie cricketers who were known for their aggressive game.
Recently during a press conference when the journalist reminded the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma about the comment made by Ben Duckett, Hitman stated that there was a player in the Indian team – Rishabh Pant and it seems Ben Duckett hasn’t seen Pant playing.
Rohit Sharma also said that he is still not able to understand what Bazball is, he added that he hasn’t seen wild swinging till now. The Indian skipper further said that England has played better cricket than the last time but still he has no clue as to what Bazball is.
Will Bazball work in Dharamshala? What do you think?