England skipper Ben Stokes’ never-seen-before field trap to dismiss Australia opener Usman Khawaja was one of the highlights of the Ashes 2023 opener at Edgbaston.
While Stokes’ reverse umbrella looking field set-up helped the hosts to get rid of Khawaja for 141, it didn’t impress Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar, who felt it was a 'field for TV' that will not provide them with breakthroughs.
Gavaskar also came down heavily on England’s ultra-aggressive approach, famously dubbed as ‘Bazball’, saying that it is only limited to batting and has nothing to do with bowling or fielding.
His comment comes days after England’s narrow two-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Ashes Test.
"The Ashes series in England seems to have caught the imagination of the cricketing public there. England are batting with a freedom that has not been seen before and more shots, both orthodox and unorthodox are being played under the regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum than before the duo took over. That's where Bazball stops," Gavaskar wrote in his recent column for Mid-Day.
"While bowling England are not doing anything different from earlier times. Yes, the field placements have been novel, with three men in catching positions on both sides of the wicket. Two fielders on either side of the pitch have been seen before and on air. I have called it a field for TV rather than one to actually get any wicket."
At Edgbaston, England declared their first innings at 393/8 after 78 overs on Day 1 when Joe Root was batting on 118. While the bold declaration triggered an outrage, the home team managed to take a meagre 7-run lead by bowling out Australia for 386.
In the second innings, the Ben Stokes-led side came out swinging and posted 273 on the board, without any of their batters scoring fifty.
In hindsight, it seemed that the bold declaration backfired as England lost the game and concede a 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series.
Gavaskar went on to claim that England's Bazball style was the main reason for several dropped catches in the Ashes opener.
Notably, the home team dropped as many as England six catches while Stuart Broad took a wicket off a no-ball in Birmingham.
"If anything, the few missed opportunities England had could have been easily pouched if these same fielders had been five to 10 paces back in the normal fielding positions. Upfront and that close the fielders had very little time to react to those hard, but uppish pulls, and so could barely get their hands to the catches."
The second Ashes Test is slated to get underway on June 28 at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground.
