'Bazball happened against lesser quality. Forget it': Gavaskar denounces England's approach in brutal 'Ashes' verdict

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar didn't mince his words as he talked about England's ‘Bazball’ approach in Ashes 2023.

England took a commanding position in the third Ashes Test after bowling the Australians out on 224 in the second innings in Headingley. In the rain-hit third day of the Test – when two sessions were entirely washed away – England made a splendid comeback to dismiss six Aussie wickets inside 90 runs; if not for Travis Head's counter-attacking 77, the visitors might have been bundled for much less.

Sunil Gavaskar said 'Bazball' approach succeeded against lesser quality oppositions, but won't work against a side like Australia. (PTI )

Australia are leading the five-Test series 2-0 with dominant wins in Edgbaston and Lord's, while England's ‘Bazball’ approach was criticised heavily by fans and former cricketers alike. Even in the Headingley Test, England faced a collapse as their aggressive approach cost them, and had Ben Stokes (80) not shown some resilience and composure at the crease, the side might just be staring at a series defeat.

Even as England are now in a winning position in Leeds, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes ‘Bazball’ approach won't work for the hosts in Ashes. In his colum for newspaper ‘Mid-day’. Gavaskar stated that England should “forget” Bazball and reserve it only for weaker teams.

“As for Bazball, forget it. It happened against lesser quality bowling, but against a top-class Australian attack it’s back to good old grinding batting and not T20 shots,” Gavaskar wrote.

“Test cricket is after all, Test cricket.”

Earlier, England's legendary former batter Geoffrey Boycott had also criticised the side's aggressive approach with the bat.

“They (England team) lost sight of the fact that the object is to win and then if you want to entertain then yes, by all means. But why can’t you win and entertain? When you get ahead of yourself – and that’s what England did – they stopped thinking,” Boycott had said before the Lord's Test, where the hosts had conceded a 43-run loss.

"If you’re going to just entertain, they might as well be a circus. That’s it, go be a professional circus around the world," he had said.

England have, however, attained significant success with their aggressive approach under the duo of captain Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, registering series wins over New Zealand, South Africa, and Pakistan over the past year. England had also defeated India in the rescheduled fifth Test in Edgbaston under the Stokes-McCullum duo.

If England do concede a defeat in Headingley, it will be their first series loss for the side under Stokes' captaincy.