England Change Over from Bazball to Root Cricket! Ranchi, 4th Test, Day1

Although it wouldn’t be wholly correct to say that the visiting England team has lost the last two Tests thanks to their solid adherence to Bazball cricket, they apparently, trailing 1-2 in the five-match Series, did or had to change their tactics on the first day of the 4^th Test match that began in Ranchi today. To add to their ‘positive approach to Test Cricket’ they won the toss today choosing to bat first, and therefore, they decided to surge ahead with that aggressive cricket, the openers—Crawley (42) and Duckett (11)—keeping the run-rate nearly at five-an-over. One more debutant for the inexperienced Team India, pacer Akash Deep, replacing a roaring Bumrah for whatever reasons of ‘rest’ the selectors may have decided, however, got both of them out quickly including the danger man Ollie Pope for a duck in between them, and thus captured three scalps reducing England to 57/3, an ominous start batting first.  Nonetheless, Jonny Bairstow carried on with Bazball scoring 38 in 35, and maintaining the about-5 team run-rate. Unfortunately for him, the Indian spinners got active then and on a pitch that the English captain Ben Stokes reportedly condemned even before match began struck two vital blows—Ashwin dismissing Bairstow while Jadeja got Stokes for just 3 runs. Perhaps, Stokes, the co-founder of Bazball in association with Coach Brendon McCullum, was in a great dilemma about carrying on with Bazball or not wasting two or three overs in the process and before he could take the final call Jadeja consumed him.

In the meantime Joe Root was slowly spreading roots in the ground. He perhaps convinced his partner Ben Foakes (47 in 126) of the all-important changeover, and therefore, they began a phase of ‘Root cricket’ which has helped them stage a recovery with a partnership of 113 runs, when the team run-rate was just above three—a clear sign of traditional Test cricket. As the spinners were being defended quite easily by the ‘rooted’ cricketers India captain Rohit brought in Mohd Siraj who was Bazball-hit in his opening spell, and under ‘Root cricket’ he got a very well-set Foakes caught. Maybe Rohit capitalized on kind of a double changeover-woes for the visitors—first Bazball to Root Cricket and then onerous spin to sudden pace. Siraj continued to bowl furious sending Tom Hartley (13) too to the pavilion with England at 245/7 in 76^th over (run-rate reading 3.25 an over).

Why are we sort of ridiculing the Bazball approach? Well, this writer has earlier indicated that this kind of approach may not at all be good in the typical Indian pitches and should not be followed for the sake of it. Besides, there was quite a lot of international brouhaha over Bazball with former stalwarts questioning it or even cracking jokes about it. A few of them say that aggressive Test cricket is actually nothing new—teams like Australia among others having already demonstrated it on numerous occasions—and naming it Bazball now England cannot claim all the credit! Therefore, we also thought what could really go wrong if we too added in our contribution! All in the spirit of the glorious game, you see! Democracy must thrive at least in this beautiful gentleman game, if not in the countries that produce-enact it!

By the way! What are the crowds (in the picture above) celebrating for?  Definitely not for abandoning Bazball? Because, cricket fans, now fatally exposed to the irresistible charms of the shorter formats of cricket, would always love quick aggressive cricket! To put it more seriously, we also have welcomed result-oriented entertaining Test Cricket on numerous former occasions. However, Indian cricket fans don’t need no reasons to celebrate! I think I said earlier, in most probably in the IPL context, that Indian fans burst into merriment of the most boisterous order the moment the telecast cameras turn on them! Wonder of wonders! Even the most tensed-up suspenseful nail-biting faces dissolve into cheering bouts as the cameras explore and focus on them!

Joe Root, most deservedly, notched up his 10^th Test century, taking 219 balls to do that which is immensely traditional and this time helping England immensely too. Ollie Robinson, the replacement for Mark Wood, gave solid support to Root in evolving a crucial partnership in the last hour of the day. And they remained not out at stumps—Root on 106 and Robinson on 31 runs—a very important unbeaten partnership of 57 runs at the team score of 302 runs. The England supporters on the ground clapped emphatically as England reached the 300-run mark, because they like all of us know that scoring 300 in a day is very healthy—Bazball or no Bazball. The enthusiastic India cricketers, trying hard for an overkill perhaps, shouted ‘how’s that’ so much so intensely that their captain landed up exhausting all their reviews, and then the shouting turned hoarser as they knew they had none now to fall upon. Rohit took the last resort of Jaiswal as the bowler in the last over to break the partnership, but to no avail. In a Test in India anything above 300 is always considered good batting first, and England has crossed it with 3 wickets remaining. How well the batsmen of the most inexperienced Team India would reply is the all-important question for tomorrow even as the odd ball is already keeping low, and the England spinners have been very good in this Series so far. Definitely, this 4^th Test is set up!