Team India and Rohit Sharma have ultimately triumphed against the biggest buzzword in world cricket in the last couple of years – Bazball.
Ever since the swashbuckling combo of Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum and Ben Stokes got themselves together at the helm in June 2022, this humbling defeat is their first-ever Test series loss.
England have won a total of 14 Test matches in this hugely successful 'Bazball' era including the first of this series in Hyderabad.
The Three Lions had won 4 and drawn 3 Test series in the Bazball era before their undefeated streak finally came to an end in India.
England's results in the Test series under 'Bazball'
vs NZ, home - WON (3-0)
vs IND, home - Drawn (1 delayed Test)
vs SA, home - WON (2-1)
vs PAK, away - WON (3-0)
vs NZ, away - Drawn (1-1)
vs IRE, home - WON (1-0)
vs AUS, home - Drawn (2-2)
vs IND, away - LOST (1-3)
Bazball finds it match in Team India
They were rolling over opposition be it South Africa, New Zealand, Australia or even India in the 2022-23 period. Even India lost the one-off Test in Edgbaston in 2022 owing to the hosts’ unstoppable Bazballing prowess.
It is precisely under this backdrop that the Antony D’Mello Trophy began with England’s first full tour of India of the ‘Bazball’ era and against an Indian team chasing its 17th consecutive Test series victory at home.
Curbing the flow of runs
The task was a gargantuan one for the Englishmen but Bazball can do absolutely ridiculous things in the most challenging of circumstances.
England consistently go at a run-rate of 5.5 and over 6 to apply enormous pressure on the opposition and reaping rewards for doing that consistently.
It’s a high-risk approach and they were largely successful after employing these tactics in England, New Zealand and Pakistan over the last couple of years.
Attacking approach toughest in Indian conditions
The biggest test for Bazball was undoubtedly going to come from playing in India against a marauding Indian team with their superstar batsmen and world-class spinners who can make life hell for any visiting side.
Bazball with all its pomp and splendour has failed spectacularly on this tour despite England starting well winning the first Test at Hyderabad.
It was always going to be an uphill task on tracks that have enough for the spinners but the Indian pacers have been a revelation as well.
Indian bowlers find a way past Bazball
The iconic Jasprit Bumrah, who was the player of the match in the second Test in Visakhapatnam with match figures of 9/91, has been relentless in this series troubling the English batsmen to no end.
The legendary Ravichandran Ashwin reaching his landmark 500th Test wicket was in his element as well including in the Ranchi Test scalping a fifer in England’s second innings to knock them out for 145. Ravindra Jadeja is never far away from being part of India’s Test victories scalping wickets at crucial intervals and scoring timely hundreds.
Not to mention Yashasvi Jaiswal's career defining back-to-back double hundreds at crucial junctures that took the wind out of England's bowlers.
England cricket pundits criticise Bazball
The English have utterly failed to grasp the importance of building an innings which their own former cricketers like Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan have been severely critical of.
The infamous Joe Root dismissal trying to reverse ramp Bumrah on day three of the Rajkot Test summed up everything that was wrong about Bazball for England.
Playing a shot as adventurous as that against the best fast bowler in the world and giving away your wicket on a platter is not going to win you a Test series in India.
