(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] Former England captain Michael Vaughan made a point regarding the Bazball approach adopted by Ben Stokes and Co., stating that the team’s batters would need to bring a balance between aggressive and traditional style of play in the ongoing Test series against India.
Vaughan is worried about the results, saying that England despite their changed approach could not win the home Ashes and allowed India to level the series 1-1 after having the first Test in Hyderabad.
“England have become a difficult team to criticise too much because they are so good to watch. Every game they play has us all absolutely gripped, and they have improved massively under Ben Stokes,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“However, I do worry that they might become a team who do all this great work only to not actually win very much. They didn’t win the Ashes when they should have done and now they have let India back into a series when they still have a load of big names, including Virat Kohli, to come back,” he added.
The Englishman wants the batters to emulate the gameplan of the bowlers, who he thinks have managed to adjust as per the different situations.
“England will not win the series if they bat the way they did in Visakhapatnam. I actually think the batsmen need to take a leaf out of the bowlers’ book. With ball in hand, they have been quite traditional at times, aggressive at others, and they have gone up and down the gears in terms of how attacking their fields have been.”
He then went on talk about Root’s struggles, advising the modern-day Test great to let go of Bazball.
“The batsmen, meanwhile, look like they only have one way to play. They are in fifth gear from ball one. I don’t mind some of them playing like that because they are better for it.
“But Joe Root should forget it. He has 10,000 Test runs playing like Joe Root. He doesn’t need to be a ‘Bazballer’. It is time for someone in the management to put an arm around Joe and say “please just be yourself”. I think it’s as simple as the fact that he is too wrapped up in ‘Bazball’, the whole ethos of excitement and entertainment.”
Root have tried to be ultra-aggresive in the series and have failed on all occasions, having registered the scores of 5, 16, 29 and 2 in the first two Tests.
“This is particularly important against spin. Along with Graham Gooch, Root is the best player of spin England has ever produced.”
“To see him bat the way he did in the second innings, that’s not Root, and it’s not the way England are going to win in India, just gifting wickets away. I knew something was up when I saw him get off the mark in both innings with reverse sweeps. He doesn’t play like that.”
“He gets himself in, then takes risks. Let the firecrackers play like that. Joe has to be the rock, the calming influence while the mad men tee off around him,” Vaughan asserted.