The power of the Baz, aye...
I've always been an unabashed Brendon fan, and my old mate TH should probably look away from this post, lest he throw up on himself. But this is classic Baz in action. He's one of the best man managers I've seen in sport. He knows how cricketers tick. In the space of 3-4 weeks, he's taken a team from near its lowest ebb to, I would imagine, reinvigorating Test cricket in the eyes of that team and the public. Nothing to do with techniques, or not really with team selection, but just by getting inside these guys' heads and backing them. I'd argue there's probably no coach in the world right now with the ability to get this side to do what it's done so far in this series.
Having said that, there's no point (although the media will) hyping this England side up like it is now capable of being the world's best. That's eons away. As great as he is, Baz never captained a side that went close to beating Australia in Tests. He never won a Test on the sub-continent as a captain. I think by my count, he captained us to 3 Test wins out of 17 abroad. What he did do, was make us bulletproof at home (only lost 2 of 14 Tests at home, both to Australia). I think England will happily take that right now, but it's a completely different thing to think they can go to India, or Australia, or even to Sri Lanka/Pakistan and win as well.
