Discussing Bazball approach in Test Cricket

[Nintendo]

Too true!! This is my mindset after getting up at 4am, doing 30,000 sit ups and eating 60 bananas whilst the rest of you losers are sleeping!!

60 small bananas would be 5400 calories, or nearly three times the recommended adult calorie intake. If your eating that and doing that many situps you probably are a God.

 

[Molehill]

60 small bananas would be 5400 calories, or nearly three times the recommended adult calorie intake. If your eating that and doing that many situps you probably are a God.

I don’t even like bananas….

I do like those Diaries of a Wanker though….until Gregg Wallace unintentionally took the God Trophy and killed off the genre.

 

[Burgey]

There was a post from Fox Sports on X as well which Stokes responded to, pointing out he was living Ashes free in their heads too.

Well, quite

 

[Daemon]

Which struggling players do we think could benefit from a bazball style approach?

Babar?

 

[sledger]

Which struggling players do we think could benefit from a bazball style approach?

Babar?

Kohli

 

[Coronis]

Which struggling players do we think could benefit from a bazball style approach?

Babar?

Steve Smith.

 

[Silver Silva]

Which struggling players do we think could benefit from a bazball style approach?

Babar?

I think the South African side as a whole , they have the big hitters who have good FC records but are lacking in runs with the conventional approach.. Stubbs , Bedingham , Rickelton, Markram , Jansen and many others could definitely pull off Bazball

 

[shortpitched713]

If batsmen selected for Tests are being given any advise, other than "bat to score runs", that coach needs to be shelacked immediately. Anything hinting at, play through a session or having anything to do with time, shelacked.

Modern Test cricket probably isn't going to be played over 5 days, more often than not so the only consideration should be runs never time, and the approach that your batsmen are comfortable scoring them with. Which is probably going to be a rate faster than when the generation of coaches who are currently coaching, would have played at.

Even for openers, the idea of seeing the "shine off the ball" should probably be completely shelved. A number 3 and even 4 and 5 bats are professional cricketers, if you get out playing a shot they'll be able to figure it out.

 

[Daemon]

If batsmen selected for Tests are being given any advise, other than "bat to score runs", that coach needs to be shelacked immediately. Anything hinting at, play through a session or having anything to do with time, shelacked.

if sarfraz tried to survive instead of attack against that second new ball India might have avoided a collapse

attacking all the time has also got england into plenty of trouble

 

[Coronis]

I think if you could attack all the time someone before McCullum would’ve figured it out.

 

[TheJediBrah]

if sarfraz tried to survive instead of attack against that second new ball India might have avoided a collapse

attacking all the time has also got england into plenty of trouble

Yes. There are times when batting time is the better option depending on conditions and state of the game

 

[honestbharani]

I dont even think its about batting time. There are times when you can play any shot you feel like and there are times where you know the percentage of missing or nicking the ball is more for certain shots and you just play your percentages then depending on the game situation.

What I have always hated is seeing batsmen leave or block fully hittable long hops or full tosses, just because its test cricket.

 

[shortpitched713]

Yes. There are times when batting time is the better option depending on conditions and state of the game

Batting time is a terrible idea, like 98% of the time in modern Test cricket.

Even some times when you have no choice but to play for a draw, the mentality of a batsman can be negatively effected, as feeling bat on ball builds confidence, so it's really hard to chuck all that out the window just because of match situation. Better to play yourself in by actually batting a bit, and then if you get reasonably close to that goal of a draw you might actually have the confidence to see it through, imo. Maybe part of that is down to how players have changed due to LO & 20/20 cricket, but hey you play with the players you actually have.

 

[GIMH]

I think if you could attack all the time someone before McCullum would’ve figured it out.

Not necessarily about this point, but I always find this sort of logic a bit silly. Sports evolve all the time and things that would never have been dreamt of become the norm.

 

[CodeOfWisden]

I think if you could attack all the time someone before McCullum would’ve figured it out.

Nah, they couldn't figure out that Wicketkeeper should make runs in over a hundred years until Gilchrist came in and the next set of Wk batsman started following him.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Batting time is a terrible idea, like 98% of the time in modern Test cricket.

Even some times when you have no choice but to play for a draw, the mentality of a batsman can be negatively effected, as feeling bat on ball builds confidence, so it's really hard to chuck all that out the window just because of match situation. Better to play yourself in by actually batting a bit, and then if you get reasonably close to that goal of a draw you might actually have the confidence to see it through, imo. Maybe part of that is down to how players have changed due to LO & 20/20 cricket, but hey you play with the players you actually have.

This completely ignores how much the degree of difficulty of batting reduces as the ball gets older. Of course there's other factors like the pitch which depending on the conditions may get worse (or better) for batting as time goes on, so its situational. The new ball vs older ball difference is more prominent these days than ever before for whatever reason. So batting time and seeing off the tough phases absolutely still has a place.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

This was a such a good old fashioned gritty knock until this happened,

"It looked like they were running out of plans but unfortunately the ball was changed," Mathews told Sky Sports before the start of the fourth day's play. "We were told they didn't have old enough balls to replace. It changed the entire momentum of the game. You work so hard to get rid of that shine, and we did that.

 

[shortpitched713]

This completely ignores how much the degree of difficulty of batting reduces as the ball gets older. Of course there's other factors like the pitch which depending on the conditions may get worse (or better) for batting as time goes on, so its situational. The new ball vs older ball difference is more prominent these days than ever before for whatever reason. So batting time and seeing off the tough phases absolutely still has a place.

Depends on the player. Some counterattacking openers are really about hammering the extra hard new ball and using that extra speed off the bat. It's just down to how you're comfortable playing and scoring. Which is really my whole point. If bazball has taught us nothing else, at least coaches should have a little less of their natural conservatism, and get out of the way of the players and their natural run scoring instincts.

Nowadays at this level, more and more I think it's a) incredibly hard to frustrate bowlers with defensive batting b) if you're getting out, it's down to the quality of the ball which just had your name on it, almost as much as the batting approach

Both factors favor positive cricket.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Batting time is a terrible idea, like 98% of the time in modern Test cricket.

Even some times when you have no choice but to play for a draw, the mentality of a batsman can be negatively effected, as feeling bat on ball builds confidence, so it's really hard to chuck all that out the window just because of match situation. Better to play yourself in by actually batting a bit, and then if you get reasonably close to that goal of a draw you might actually have the confidence to see it through, imo. Maybe part of that is down to how players have changed due to LO & 20/20 cricket, but hey you play with the players you actually have.

This is only true for some players, definitely not all

 

[Bahnz]

England losing a series against a Pakistan side that just got blanked by Bangladesh. India trying to bazball their way through tricky conditions and losing their first series in 12 years. Is bazball dying?