Bazball was an absolute failure. These were the words of former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif when asked about England chaotic 1-4 defeat in India in a recent series of tests. Kaif appeared on the Star Sports show called Follow the Blues and there he claimed that England almost went into a shell after achieving victory in the first Test.
The Ben Stokes-led England team was expected to put up a dominant display after winning the first Test by 28 runs in Hyderabad. However, the hosts led by Rohit Sharma They staged an excellent comeback from the second Test onwards as they won by 106 runs in Vizag. Mohammad Kaif pointed out that when England won the first match, it was expected to remain a close contest, but India were too powerful at the end of the series.
Mohammad Kaif praises Rohit Sharma for good captaincy and batting performance
Mohammad Kaif then praised Rohit Sharma for his smart captaincy and batting in the series. Rohit scored 2 centuries in the series, in the 3rd Test at Rajkot and the 5th at Dharamshala. The way he led the inexperienced Indian team full of young faces was simply exceptional and Kaif believes he should be given credit for that.
“Bazball was an absolute failure. When they (England) won the first Test match, it looked like it would be a very good series. It is very important to win the first Test match when you come to India. After that, by continuously losing test matches and losing the series, I feel Bazball got a bit exposed. “Rohit Sharma was a very good captain and showed good form.” – said Mohammad Kaif via Star Sports.
The series victory was made possible by the contributions of different players in different situations. But there was one common player whose participation paid dividends for India and that was, of course, Man of the Series Yashasvi Jaiswal. The 22-year-old, who scored two double centuries, was a big revelation in the five-match series which was also his first red-ball home outing.
Indian vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah also deserves praise for his bowling performance throughout and acting as a game-changer in certain situations. It was his 5-wicket haul in the second Test along with Jaiswal’s maiden double century that helped India level the series at 1-1.
Next are the debutants, except Rajat Patidar (Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal and Akash Deep), who also contributed when required.
Mohammad Kaif says senior players will miss series
Mohammad Kaif then stated that England should think about how they lost the series despite the major absence of Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah too in some parts of the series.
“Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Shami were not in this series. It means that many key players were missing. Even (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Jasprit) Bumrah didn’t play in the middle. It is a huge thing to win the series in the absence of many key players,” concluded Mohammad Kaif.