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England’s aggressive approach towards Test cricket, popularly known as Bazball, has garnered attention and admiration from the cricketing world. Under the leadership of Ben Stokes and the influence of red-ball coach Brendon McCullum, England have achieved impressive results in the past year.
They have defeated strong teams like New Zealand, South Africa and India (in a one-off Test at Edgbaston) on home soil, while also securing a whitewash against Pakistan away from home and playing a drawn series (1-1) in New Zealand. The Three Lions didn’t waver from their aggressive approach even during the Ashes 2023 series against Australia. Despite being 2-0 down, they played fearlessly and bounced back to level the five-match series 2-2.
Due to Bazball’s hype in Ashes, many Indian fans have talked about cultivating this approach in Indian cricket.
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Ashwin believes Indian cricketing culture’s approach towards bad result is unforgiving and uncompromising
However, Ravichandran Ashwin expressed reservations about adopting the Bazball method in the Indian team. According to him, India’s cricketing culture doesn’t tolerate bad results, and the aggressive approach might not be well-supported in the country.
“We are playing Test cricket very well. But we will go through a transition soon. And things won’t be easy during that phase. There will be a few issues here and there. But let’s assume India adopts Bazball during this phase. Let us assume a player throws his bat at everything like Harry Brook and gets out and we lose two Test matches. What will we do? Will we back Bazball and the players? We will drop at least four players from our playing XI. That’s how our culture has always been,” the right-arm off-spinner explained on his Youtube channel.
Ashwin further emphasized that it might not be appropriate to simply copy another team’s style of play just because it has been successful for them. The 36-year-old also reckoned that the success of England’s Bazball approach can be attributed to the backing and support they received from their management and fans. The management’s belief in the aggressive style of play and the fans’ acceptance and appreciation of it provided the players with the confidence and freedom to execute their game plan effectively.
“We can’t copy others’ style of play just because it worked for them. It works for them because their management is fully in with this style of play, their selectors back the players to play this way. In fact, even their crowd and Test match watching public are backing the team in this process. But we can’t do this,” the Chennai-born cricketer further added
Ashwin wants fans to support during the ODI World Cup 2023
With the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 approaching and India being the host, the fans naturally have high expectations but the veteran cricketer wants them to support with positivity throughout the marquee tournament.
Winning a World Cup is not easy guys. Just because we play a certain player or drop a certain player, we can’t win. All of us are hindsight kings. The hindsight operations don’t work here. We have qualified for the semi-final of almost all major tournaments. On that day we haven’t been good enough. The least I am asking is when we get into the 2023 World Cup, let us send the team with full positivity. That will be my only request,” Ashwin concluded.
Notably, the much-awaited ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is scheduled to commence on October 5, with the opening fixture being played between England and New Zealand at Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, India, being the host nation, will kick off their World Cup campaign on October 8 against the five-time champions Australia.
One for glory hunting " ICC trophies " fans and former cricketers who spew nonsense on current players. pic.twitter.com/pc5caqmZDS
— Sunil (@Hitting_Middle) August 1, 2023
