England will travel to India for a five-match Test series early next year.
With this style, the Three Lions have produced impressive results under the regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum over the last one year. While England defeated New Zealand, South Africa and India (one-off Test at Edgbaston) at home, they whitewashed Pakistan away from home and played a 1-1 drawn series in New Zealand.
England didn’t change their approach in the recently-concluded Ashes series against Australia as well. Despite being 2-0 down, they played fearlessly to bounce back and level the five-match series 2-2.
The tour of India early next year will pose the next biggest challenge to ‘Bazball’ and head coach McCullum is looking forward to it.
“First of all, it will be a great, traditional tour of India. I think some of the venues we're going to are a bit different to maybe what we've seen on our previous tours. So, it's going to be a really exciting opportunity for our team on the back of what has been quite incredible, sort of 15-16 months (in the England job), and a really fun Ashes series to be a part of,” McCullum said in an exclusive chat with TOI.
McCullum also spoke about the term ‘Bazball’ that has been coined for England's fearless approach in the longest format of the game.
“The term 'Bazball,' we don't like to call it that at all..That's a media term, it's not how we refer to things. It's simply about trying to give the guys as much freedom to allow their talent to come out as much as we possibly can. It's about making a good decision in pressure environments and trying to enjoy the cricket that they are playing,” he explained.
Commenting further on the upcoming India tour, McCullum said: “There's going to be a huge test here in India, with the conditions, against a very good India side as well. We will be challenged a lot, no doubt, by spin. But that's what you want as well as a player. You want to play against the best in their own conditions and see where you measure up.”
When asked what prompted him to come up with this 'Bazball' theory after taking charge as England Test coach, McCullum replied: “What prompted you to devise this 'Bazball' theory once you took over as England Test coach? Well, I certainly didn't call it (Bazball) that! And I don't like that term either because it takes away from the thought process of the (England team) guys. You know, they work incredibly hard. They are very clear how they want to go about things and it's a really simple gain that we are trying to achieve.”
“Since the skipper Stoksey (Ben Stokes) has taken over, we've seen the team play with total conviction in its methods and I think that's something that has worked out well for us. It's not going to be always as rosy as it is at the moment, but we've had a good period, and we're just going to trying to find ways to keep improving and getting better.”
More than the results, Brendon McCullum is glad by the fact that Stokes and his men had total conviction while adopting this approach to play Test cricket.
“I'm always an optimist. You hope that things work out well. International cricket is hard, right? There are very good players operating amongst many different nations. Sometimes, you play well and not necessarily win. The thing that I'm most pleased about is the total buy-in we've had from the players and the total conviction from the captain, and how he wants our team to play and how much fun the guys are having. It's nice to get the wins and the success on the board, but it's also great to know that you are doing it how you want to do it,” he stated.
The Stokes-led English side will travel to India for a five-match Test series, scheduled to be played from January 25 to March 11. Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala will stage the Test matches.
(With TOI Inputs)