English cricket’s “Baz-ball” strategy, which has helped them win four straight tests, has been questioned by Australian Test batsman Steve Smith. Smith, who has scored a huge amount of runs in Test matches against England, questions the sustainability of the strategy.
After Brendon McCullum became England’s new Test coach and introduced an aggressive style of cricket to the format, the name “Baz-ball” was created in his praise. In Test cricket, it attempts to score runs rapidly and is meant to win games rather than tie them.
Smith, who is currently playing two Test matches in Sri Lanka, said the Australian squad has made a lot of jokes about the phrase. Steve Smith believes it might not be effective against elite seamers on a green wicket, though.
He said, “ “It’s been exciting. I’m just intrigued to see how long it lasts and will that be sustainable?”. He also said that they keep joking about the term Baz-ball. He concluded by saying “On a wicket that’s got some grass on it and Josh Hazlewood, Cummins and Starc will roll at you, will that approach work at that time?”.
With their bold new strategy for Test cricket, England has achieved four victories despite chasing totals of more than 250, three of which came against New Zealand. 277, 296 and 299 were quickly taken down by Ben Stokes and team. In order to tie the five-Test series against India, they also scored 378 runs at Edgbaston with seven wickets left to spare.
In an effort to win consecutive series against Sri Lanka for the first time in 16 years, Australia is now preparing for that test, which will take place on Friday. The talk of the town, though, is about England and their most recent strategy for the match. Meanwhile England will play a limited over series against India.