After India’s Rishabh Pant scored a blistering 111-ball 146 on Day 1 the fifth against England on Friday, June 2, the Three Lions’ assistant coach and former cricketer Paul Collingwood called the wicketkeeper-batsman innings as Bazball.
Bazall is a term coined to describe the way former New Zealand skipper and current England Test coach used to play his cricket by taking the attack to the opponent.
Pant produced a phenomenal innings of 146 runs off just 111 balls rescuing India from a very difficult position on the opening day of the Test. His partnership with Ravindra Jadeja (83 not out) started with India struggling at 98/5, eventually helping the team past the 300-run mark with a magnificent 222-run stand for the sixth wicket.
"Pant came out to play a bit of Bazball (comparison with Brendon McCullum, the England Test head coach) as everyone keeps calling it. When you have a bit of moisture in the pitch early on, you have a chance to take early wickets, which is what we did. We're going against the grain of much of the cricket that's been played over the last 100 years... We are trying to play as positive as possible, and play entertaining cricket. Ben (Stokes) is not going to take a backwards step,” Collingwood said.
Collingwood also said that Pant's Bazball innings was an indication that Test cricket is changing fast.
"(McCullum) said right from the start about the bigger picture of Test cricket and that for it to survive, we've got to make it much more entertaining, and today's cricket was entertaining. There were wickets, there were runs, there were great catches. When you're watching someone as entertaining as Pant, you've got to applaud an innings like that," added Collingwood.
