GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
Wash your mouth out!!! Chris is very objective and fair
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Who do neutrals want to win?
- Thread starter Zinzan
- Start date
Adders
Cricketer Of The Year
Tell me what bazball is my mate? How would you describe it in your own words?
Ftr I still absolutely despise the term but its here for now so I'm reluctantly using it.
Athlai
Not Terrible
The McCullum "earn the right to be aggressive" philosophy. I think measured aggression is a good strategy but from his captaincy to this more evolved form with the English team, it's just such a clear concerted effort to be putting the opponent on the backfoot at all costs. I think its worked better for England so far than it really should over a longer period of time.
England's a very good team, with a top class attack and a pretty good batting lineup, but the batting has over performed IMO. Could be luck, could be the SHOCK and AWE of Bazball.
Adders
Cricketer Of The Year
There's a lot in that I kinda agree with.....but my main objection, as it is with the term Bazball. Is that there's too much emphasis on BMac and and not enough on Ben Stokes.
On the bowling front I think this brand of cricket has been incredible......Ben Stokes has proved to be an outstanding on field captain, who trusts in his bowlers and is prepared to buy his wickets.....but he gets them, 20 wickets 20 out of 22 times.
The batting.....reckon it's just because of what we've got available. If we had some Alistair Cooks or Jonathon Trotts in the line up (vastly better batsmen than we currently have bar Root) then I think the approach would be very different.
Its seriously taken me a while to get on board, and I'm still not absolutely certain I am if Stokes risks the Ashes on a crazy declaration (and im certain that he would)....but ****, he and England now are surely doing what they're paid to do and that's provide entertainment to the paying public yeah?
Adorable Asshole
International Regular
As an Indian, I desperately want England to lose but I don't think this Australian team has what it takes to win an Ashes in England especially with Starc in it. If Hazelwood is not fit for Ashes, then Australia is surely gonna lose the series.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
I don't really think the bowling has changed much. It's largely the same personnel and while every captain has his little finesses I haven't actually seen much to suggest the bowling is significantly better. I think the main differences have been:
1. Not playing in Aus/WI where England bowlers always go to die.
2. Not bowling to subpar totals all the time that have a real and significant effect on fields, plans and general morale.
I think the bowling has always been good, essentially, and was let down by the poor batting returns.
I think 'Bazball' in the batting has been in many ways self-perpetuating. At first, it seemed like Stokes was just trying to unclutter the minds of his best batsmen and encourage them to get out of their heads and play more naturally to get the most out of the best talent. This was a great thing and something England's batting lineup sorely needed - and if you look at the first few games of Stokes' captaincy, it really wasn't the sustained approach we saw in Pakistan and NZ at all. I think after it worked and the media got hold of it, though, the captain and the coach kind of ran away with it to a point where it could end up detrimental.
Having Root premediate reverse sweeps off quicks is going to make him score fewer runs, not more.
Having Stokes go out there and dial up whatever everyone else is doing to 140% to 'set the tone' and 'make sure batsmen aren't afraid to look stupid getting out' is going to make him score fewer runs, not more.
Leaving out players like Compton for players like Crawley because the latter fits a pre-meditated approach better than the former is way beyond getting the most out of your best players; it's borderline having a masculinity fetish where you'd rather beat your chest while scoring at 5rpo than actually make more runs. This is going to result in fewer runs, not more.
Asking specifically for flat, hard pitches against a team that loves those and hasn't won a series in more typical English conditions for decades is just dunderheadedness. This may just be a misdirection, but we'll see - I think McStokes may have let it all go to their head.
People often have different theories about who I actually support in the Ashes and the truth is that I more support specific players than one team or another, but I definitely hope the hyper-aggressive Bazball-type batting approach fails. Jimmeh to still average 18 with the ball though of course.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
I dont think its that simplistic though? He is asking batsmen to look to score runs first and defend only if they cant and treat each ball on its own instead of being shackled by what happened earlier. Pretty basic but its not as if he is asking them to blindly slog every ball. And I dont think it is as much about putting opponents on the backfoot as much as putting themselves on the frontfoot, if that makes sense.
ZK$
U19 Cricketer
I think Stokes has actually said that players like Cook and Trott wouldn’t get into his team lol.
shortpitched713
International Captain
I went for England in 2005, and have vowed to never make that same mistake again.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
He kind of did. Disgraceful.
Ben Stokes on whether a young Alastair Cook would make the current England team
In an interview with Nasser Hussain recorded during the IPL, England captain Ben Stokes suggested that a young Jonathan Trott or Alastair Cook might not find a place in the current England set-up.
wisden.com
CricAddict
Cricketer Of The Year
"None" should be an option here.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Retained Ashes Best Ashes.
GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
He'd get in the 09 team I think. And plays instead of Collingwood in 05
Red_Ink_Squid
Global Moderator
Would play ahead of '05 Bell as a bat alone.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Easy to say in hindsight but they left Thorpe out for Bell. I don't think he's making that team at full strength. Obviously would've played the fifth Test ahead of Colly but that's not really in the spirit of the claim.
Flem274*
123/5
Usually I'm Australia all the way but the Australian exceptionalism narrative that has been spread ever since BazBall became a thing does need a return to Earth. Everyone has bundled these sloggers out cheap, and they fall in a heap to 5 for nothing ever since coming up with the idea of just biffing it. Yet they jam their way out of it through one or two genius knocks. That's what makes them so annoying. You know they should fail.
Australia were also one of the first victims of McCullum and Stokes just whacking it against the odds - Australia conceded 100+ to McCullum swinging for the hills on a bouncy first innings Hagley green deck, about as Australia friendly as a pitch gets outside Aus. Stokes had the Stokes test ofc.
The Australian attack is not different. It is the best, but if it has one vulnerability it is it hates being attacked. They love little English battlers trying to grind them out.
But on the other hand I really ****ing hate England because apart from pretending they have invented slogging, annoying me in general since 2008 with their national sporting personality, and pretending they won an ODI World Cup, they are also a team representing England led by a man who probabaly would be in jail if he were one of us and coached by a man who gave NZ the most annoying youtube ad of all time this year.
I guess I'll settle for Putin nuking them all in the 5th test.
Australia were also one of the first victims of McCullum and Stokes just whacking it against the odds - Australia conceded 100+ to McCullum swinging for the hills on a bouncy first innings Hagley green deck, about as Australia friendly as a pitch gets outside Aus. Stokes had the Stokes test ofc.
The Australian attack is not different. It is the best, but if it has one vulnerability it is it hates being attacked. They love little English battlers trying to grind them out.
But on the other hand I really ****ing hate England because apart from pretending they have invented slogging, annoying me in general since 2008 with their national sporting personality, and pretending they won an ODI World Cup, they are also a team representing England led by a man who probabaly would be in jail if he were one of us and coached by a man who gave NZ the most annoying youtube ad of all time this year.
I guess I'll settle for Putin nuking them all in the 5th test.