England had won just one out of 17 Tests before newly appointed English cricket chief Rob Key brought McCullum and Stokes together to oversee a dynamic revamp of their long-format game dubbed “Bazball”.
Can England recapture the Ashes playing their ultra-aggressive” Bazball” brand of justice or will they come unstuck against battle- hardened Australia? The answer will come over the coming weeks, starting with the first Test of a hotly awaited five- match series at Edgbaston on Friday. England have forced the rest of the world to sit up and take notice, with 11 triumphs in 13 Tests since captain Ben Stokes and trainer Brendon McCullum joined forces last time.
But dubieties persist as to whether their policy of all- eschewal attack can work againstarch-rivals Australia, who only last week pounded India by 209 runs at The Oval to win the World Test Championship final.
Steve Waugh, the last Australia captain to win an Ashes series in England, back in 2001, isn’t alone in questioning whether Stokes’ side have an indispensable plan.
“Have they got a Plan B?” Waugh said to the Australian media.” They’ve shown they’re good enough to carry this style of justice off but the ultimate test will be against a world- class bowling attack, which Australia has got.”
England had won just one out of 17 Tests before recently appointed English justice chief Rob Key brought McCullum and Stokes together to oversee a dynamic revamp of their long- format game dubbed” Bazball”, in reference to the surname of former New Zealand captain McCullum.
And all- rounder Stokes is adamant he has no intention of altering his approach.
“Nothing is going to change because we have had unthinkable success with it,” the 32- time-old told the BBC.
“If we were to change anything from the last 12 months because we find ourselves in an Ashes series also anything from the last 12 months will have been fully meaningless.”
– Strike rate-
England have scored at an eye- soddening4.85 runs an over in the once time.
And England great James Anderson, Test justice’s most succesful paceman, said that had benefits for the bowlers as well.
“The (bowling) run- rate is inapplicable to Ben in particular,” explained Anderson.
“He is like’ I do not watch how numerous runs you go for, I want 20 lattices as snappily as possible’. You are constantly allowing, as a bowler also, about’ How am I taking my coming gate’?”
Of further immediate concern to England suckers than Stokes’s gospel is his fitness.
Stokes, a lively attachment, decided against bowling himself in England’s recent 10- gate palm over Ireland after floundering with a knee injury.
He has since declared himself fit to coliseum and with Anderson and fellow paceman Ollie Robinson suffering nitpicking injuries, the hosts will hope he can make good on those words.
England will be without Jack Leach for the whole Ashes after the left- arm incentive was ruled out with a reverse problem.
Moeen Ali has been recalled in his absence and the off- incentive’s two- time Test withdrawal could end at his Edgbaston home ground, indeed though he pars an precious64.65 in Ashes justice.
Ashes- holders Australia, by discrepancy, have a proven world- class off- incentive in Nathan Lyon, who’s closing in on 500 Test lattices.
Captain Pat Cummins is in the fortunate position of deciding if either Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood joins him in a fast- bowling attack probably to include Scott Boland.
Boland’s fine WTC final display– he took five lattices in the match– left him with 33 lattices in eight Tests at a niggardly normal of14.57.
Alternate- ranked Australia drew the last Ashes series in England in 2019 2- 2 and demolished the old adversary 4- 0 on home turf in2021/22.
But they’ve not won a series in England for 22 times, with numerous of their batsmen, the outstanding Steve Smith excepted, floundering to acclimatize to English conditions.
Australia have now gone 12 Test innings in England since enjoying a first- gate stage of 20 or further, while under- pressure nature David Warner, 36, has now managed just one century in his once 34 Test innings against all opponents.
His battle with his nemesis, paceman Stuart Broad, will be just one of a number of fascinating plots, with Tests at Lord’s, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval to follow the curtainraiser in Birmingham.
“An Ashes (in England) is bloody hard to win. It’s been 20-odd times so it’s not going to be easy,” said the 30- time-old Cummins. However, that’s heritage- defining stuff,” If we win.” Know More Latest Test Cricket News…
