When Brendon McCullum took over as England's head coach in Test cricket back in 2022, no one would have expected him to completely change the side's batting approach just after a few months, but that is exactly what he did. The new ultra-aggressive batting approach that England adopted under McCullum wasn't seen before in the longest format and soon came to be known as 'Bazball'.
Boycott heavily criticized England's 'Bazball' approach
However, reviews of the playstyle have always been mixed especially due to the fact that England haven't achieved a lot of success with it. In a scathing rant about 'Bazball', legendary England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott called out Ben Stokes & Co. for their 'reckless' batting and further claimed that they should be embarrassed for not qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final even once.
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"England should beat India if they temper Bazball and use some common sense. At times their cricket has been thrilling and super enjoyable, but also reckless batting has lost them Test matches. Their only thought should be winning because it is no use telling us how good you are when the last three World Test Championship finals have been played in our country but England have not qualified for any of them. They should be embarrassed. Their aim should be to make the next WTC final," Boycott wrote in his colum for The Daily Telegraph.
"The new cycle starts now and somebody needs to get through to the England players that being a winner is better than being known as an entertainer. If you can win and entertain, that is a bonus. At the moment England are like a one-trick-pony. It's Bazball or Bazball and that is the way we play; take it or leave it. They don't want to change or learn from their losses. It does not seem to make any difference that so many top-class ex-England Test players keep telling them to moderate their batting. So please, get your act together, bring your best game and apply some cricket nous," he added.
The first Test of the five-match assignment between India and England is set to commence from June 20. The new WTC cycle will also begin with the match at Headingley, so the series will definitely be quite important for both the sides. With India having not recorded a Test series triumph on English soil since 2007, Shubman Gill & Co. will be looking to finally snap their losing streak in the all-important tour.
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England's playing XI for first Test against India: Ben Stokes (C), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
India squad for England Tests: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.