Have you had enough of T20, or cricket in general? Was the World Test Championship final, in your opinion, the ultimate Test as the ICC wanted you to believe? Think again, for it’s time for the Ashes.
Logic dictates India shouldn’t be too bothered by it. We have our own Test season to look forward to, a massive home World Cup and possibly several axes to grind if we lose till another promising IPL sweeps all our concerns under the rug.
But India are also due to play in England in 2025, in an Ashes-like five-Test affair. Having experienced a sliver of England’s ‘Bazball’ brand of cricket in the postponed Manchester Test last summer, India might want to keep a tab on how the oldest rivalry plays out this time.
Look at it from another angle too. Test cricket’s sanctity and primacy needs to be protected. But its broadcaster-dictated economically viable bubble has now shrunk to three rivalries, India being part of two of them—versus Australia and England. And as much as we love talking about upholding Test cricket, neither have India’s administrators nor the cricketers done anything to ensure maximum eyeballs. England have at least walked the talk.
With Ben Stokes at the helm, they want to make the game more entertaining by debunking Test myths and catering to an audience more used to T20. A ruthless win-at-any-cost temperament has facilitated an 11-2 record in the past year, with England minting breathtakingly audacious victories against New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan. If the same enterprise is exhibited in the Ashes, Australia, and by extension India perhaps as well, could be drawn into playing a white-ball version of Test cricket. It’s a win-win scenario.
{{/usCountry}}With Ben Stokes at the helm, they want to make the game more entertaining by debunking Test myths and catering to an audience more used to T20. A ruthless win-at-any-cost temperament has facilitated an 11-2 record in the past year, with England minting breathtakingly audacious victories against New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan. If the same enterprise is exhibited in the Ashes, Australia, and by extension India perhaps as well, could be drawn into playing a white-ball version of Test cricket. It’s a win-win scenario.
{{/usCountry}}There is a catch though, floated no less than Steve Waugh who has questioned England’s backup to ‘Bazball’. Do they have any? Unlikely. Central to England’s new-found buzz is the onus on batters to accelerate the game which in turn gives enough overs to dismiss the opposition twice.
It explains why in his 14-Test career as captain Ben Stokes has already declared England’s first innings four times. To add more context, only former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has declared more than Stokes—five times, but in 80 Tests. It’s still a new brand of cricket alright, yet to be tested in India and Australia, but the rate of success at home will surely keep England motivated against their oldest rivals.
England’s degree of evolution, though staggering, hasn’t covered every aspect of the game. Ever since Brendon McCullum and Stokes took charge as coach and captain, England’s batters have been scoring at an impressive 4.63 runs per over at home, while their bowlers averaged 27.16 runs per wicket.
But Australia were already playing their own brand of aggressive cricket much before England took it to a different level. For a decade before ‘Bazball’ happened, England scored at 2.91 per over and conceded 28.76 per wicket. But Australia’s corresponding numbers were 3.54 and 30.02—the best among all visiting teams to have played at least 10 Tests in England during that phase.
This essentially means England’s ‘Bazball’ gap at home is still the least for Australia to bridge even before they have played a single ball. And even though they played India at the Oval, Australia’s first innings averages—3.86 runs per over and 29.6 runs per wicket—show they are already getting into that groove.
From a strictly bilateral point of view, this Ashes is already up there in terms of anticipation, especially in the backdrop of Steve Smith nearly single-handedly winning them the urn in 2019 and the hangover of one year of ‘Bazball’.
Gloves will come off, draws will be discouraged and reverse scoops will be wildly cheered. Generous attention has been diverted to England’s hitting ability, particularly against Nathan Lyon, but England will also be mindful that the current top-three Test batters are all from Australia. ‘Bazball’ might work in passages of play, but it’s difficult to imagine Australia not counterattacking.
However, as Ben Stokes wrote in his piece in the Players' Tribune, England won't change: "Everybody fails at some point, so you might as well go out batting the way you want to. That won’t change just because it’s the Ashes."
The stakes do go beyond the immediate realm of who will win this Ashes series or whether Don Bradman’s record will finally be broken. The health of the game is in peril. In a rapidly changing world where more franchise leagues are mushrooming every year, Test cricket needs an urgent shot of relevance, a breakthrough series of sorts that teaches us new ways of playing and loving the game. Ironically enough, that can only come from its oldest rivalry.