'That's Where Bazball Stops': Sunil Gavaskar Says England Not Doing Anything Different With Their Bowling

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar criticised England’s bowling approach and field placements in the first Test against Australia at Edgbaston. England lost the Ashes 2023 opener by two wickets as Ben Stokes and his bowlers’ switched to a defensive approach in the final hour of play.

Gavaskar pointed out that England’s ‘Bazball’ is all related to batting only and it stops when it comes to bowling.

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“The Ashes series in England seems to have caught the imagination of the cricketing public there. England are batting with a freedom that has not been seen before and more shots, both orthodox and unorthodox are being played under the regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum than before the duo took over. That’s where Bazball stops,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

England batted with an ultra-attacking approach in the opening Test but their bowling struggled against a solid Australian batting unit.

Gavaskar stated that England have not anything out of the box with the ball and called their field placements are for TV rather than to take wicket.

“While bowling England are not doing anything different from earlier times. Yes, the field placements have been novel, with three men in catching positions on both sides of the wicket. Two fielders on either side of the pitch have been seen before and on air. I have called it a field for TV rather than one to actually get any wicket,” he wrote.

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Gavaskar also questioned the positioning of the fielders as he advised Stokes to put the fielders five to ten paces back so that they can get some time to react while taking catches.

“If anything, the few missed opportunities England had could have been easily pouched if these same fielders had been five to 10 paces back in the normal fielding positions. Upfront and that close the fielders had very little time to react to those hard, but uppish pulls, and so could barely get their hands to the catches,” he wrote.