India last won a Test series on English soil in 2007.
England are all set to host India in a five-match Test series starting June 20. After the retirement of three Indian stalwarts, a new dawn emerges in Indian cricket with a young captain at the helm. With new energy under his wings, Shubman Gill will hope for a good start in his first assignment as India’s red-ball skipper.
There’s something about Test cricket in England. Rather, England in Test cricket. Since the appointment of Brendon McCullum as Head Coach in 2022, the English side has played Test cricket in a completely different manner. A manner, which the world refers to as Bazball.
The term is being used by the stakeholders like a toy in the hands of a two-year-old. There’s something about it that makes it a point of discussion ahead of every Test series. Bazball, to every cricketing fan, is almost a curiosity. Joe Root walks in to bat and reverse sweeps the first ball for a boundary. Sounds uncanny, doesn’t it? Yet, he’s been doing it. They have all been playing a different brand of cricket since 2022, which the Indians will have to be wary of. So, what is Bazball? And how can the Indians dodge the bullet?
Chris Silverwood took over England’s reins from Trevor Bayliss. The former was appointed Head Coach in October 2019 after the expiration of Bayliss’ four-year contract. The Three Lions played 34 Test matches in Silverwood’s coaching tenure, winning just 10 of those. The former Head Coach was criticised for several issues, the most notable of which was leaving out experienced bowlers like James Anderson and Stuart Broad during the first Test of the Ashes in 2021-22 in Brisbane. Additionally, his tactical decisions were haywire. The 50-year-old also made the headlines for his rotation policy during the series loss in India and at home to New Zealand in 2021. At home, England managed to win just four out of the 12 Tests they played between October 2019 and May 2022.
English cricket was not in a good state, and things needed to change. That’s when Brendon McCullum was appointed as the head coach for the longest format in May 2022. Under McCullum, England lost their first away Test nine months later, on February 23, 2024, by a minuscule solitary run against New Zealand. At home, the team has managed 15 victories out of 20 games, losing just four. The former New Zealand opener brought in a method to take calculated risks and dictate the pace of the game. At this point, if you’re thinking that Bazball is just about playing aggressive cricket, you’re probably wrong.
Between 2018-2021, England’s top seven batters averaged 32.35 in Tests at home. This was the second-lowest average for a home team (with 10+ Tests). Since 2022, that number has shot to a respectable 43.86 at home, the second best. Barring Jamie Overton, who has played just a single Test, Joe Root averages 63.67, the best at home. Despite being the most aggressive batter in the group, Ben Stokes averages 34.02 in Tests since 2022, the sixth-best for the Three Lions. So, if Bazball was all about muscle and power, the English skipper would have been right up there.
Bazball isn’t a style of play. Bazball is a mindset. It is not about tonking every ball for a boundary. It is an aggressive brand of cricket, considering the match situation. Bazball isn’t madness. It is the method towards madness. It is freedom of mind, and the ability to back one’s strength to the hilt.
England had won just one match in 17 Tests under Joe Root by 2020-21. After failing to hit the ‘reset’ button, they were ready for a complete reboot. Right in the first match for Stokes as captain in 2022, it was visible that England were going to play their cricket differently. After he was given a life in the Test at Lord’s against New Zealand, Stokes counter-attacked to take the charge to the Kiwis, helping his team register a victory.
McCullum faced a bit of heat after England went down to South Africa in the first Test in August 2022. They were all out for 169 and 154. The 43-year-old expressed that they could have been ‘more aggressive’, to throw some pressure back onto the Proteas. That is some mindset, isn’t it?
The British scored runs at 3.05 per over in the Test format in the 2019-2022 phase. That number now reads 4.63. Moreover, the average of the team was 28.77 in the Silverwood era, a number that has gone up to 36.12 at present. The team has persisted with this playing style, which they closely relate to, and that has yielded significant results.
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The Duke’s Ball controversy during the Ashes series of 2023 sparked another debate in the cricketing fraternity. But the Duke’s ball has surely gotten a bit easier on the batters in the last three years or so. During 2018-2021, the average movement of the ball was 1.5 degrees, making it quite difficult for batters to survive. Since 2022, the movement of the ball has decreased to a certain extent.
Along with this, the ability of the English batters to put the bad deliveries away has improved multiple times. Though the openers are cautious at the start, the batters down the order have made it a pattern to go after bowling attacks once the ball starts getting older.
Shubman Gill and his men will face a stern test against this English side. Apart from the obvious challenges of structuring the batting order and filling in the void that the retired players have left, they have another important thing to ponder. The Indians were on the receiving end of England’s aggressive playing style back in 2022, in the one-off Test in which they failed to defend 378. Since 2022, India’s bowling department has been plagued primarily by the first-change bowlers. They have struggled to stem the flow of runs even on wickets that assisted bowling. The change seamers have averaged 38 in SENA countries, as compared to 23.93 by the opening seamers.
As a metric to compare, we can look at how good the pacers were in the 2018-2021 phase in SENA countries. The opening seamers averaged 26.05, and the change seamers stood at an impressive 26.69. India had to use Nitish Kumar Reddy as a bowling option during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Gill and the Indian management will have to make sure that their bowlers bowl tight lines.
| 2018-2021 | Wickets | Average | Economy | Five-Wicket Hauls |
| Opening Seamers | 174 | 26.05 | 2.83 | 7 |
| Change Seamers | 133 | 26.69 | 3.24 | 4 |
| Since 2022 | Wickets | Average | Economy | Five-Wicket Hauls |
| Opening Seamers | 102 | 23.93 | 3.39 | 6 |
| Change Seamers | 48 | 38.00 | 3.96 | 1 |
How India manages to deal with these factors is what will define the summer for them. The visitors last won a Test series on English soil in 2007, under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. If Shubman Gill manages to ace this assignment in his very first outing as skipper, it would be historic in Indian cricket.
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