England have been trying to adapt a style of fast-paced batting called ‘Bazball’ for quite some time. The style, which is named after their head coach Brendon McCullum, has seen batsmen scoring runs at extremely quick speeds in Test matches and it has resulted in some brilliant wins against Pakistan and New Zealand. However, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin did not sound quite convinced with the aggressive style of batting and said that it will surely falter in certain kind of conditions.
“We now have a concept called Bazball. England is playing high-paced Test match cricket. They want to play a certain style of cricket. But in certain types of wicket, when you try and attack every ball, you will falter. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this approach,” Ashwin said.
“Some will ask instead of defending and getting all out for 100, I will slog it out and get all out for 140. We will only know when the game pans out that the approach works or not. Sometimes, on the wicket, conditions need to be respected. If you respect the pitch and play accordingly, the pitch will also respect you. If you respect the pitch, it will pay you dividends,” the veteran spinner explained.
Ashwin, who has been one of India’s go-to bowlers in the two Test matches against Australia so far, hasn’t failed in weaving his magic on the 22-yard strip. Ashwin and Jadeja have bowled in tandem to give India a 2-0 lead in the 4-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
In fact, Jadeja broke into the top 10 of the ICC Test bowler rankings after his brilliant showing in the first two Tests against Australia. The left-arm bowler is the leading wicket-taker in the Border-Gavaskar series with 17 wickets from the two Tests and has galloped to the ninth spot in the bowling rankings. Jadeja is the third Indian in the top 10 with Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah being the other two.
Ashwin, at the moment, occupies the second spot with 40-year-old James Anderson occupying the pole position. Considering the momentum with which Ashwin is playing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Anderson’s spot at the summit position is under threat by Ashwin.
(With ANI inputs)
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