Former England captain Nasser Hussain has urged English players to play according to the conditions and be smart in their game instead of playing headless cricket in the name of Bazball. England won the first match of the series in Hyderabad defeating India by 28 runs, but then lost two consecutive games in Vizag and Rajkot to give India the lead in the ongoing five-match Test series. India and England have played three Tests so far and the hosts lead 2-1.
England have had a successful trial run with the Bazball philosophy but their strategy of playing aggressive cricket is not working in India as they have been beaten by Rohit Sharma and co. Only two England batsmen have scored a century in this series; Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett. The Indian batsmen are feasting on the English bowlers as four of them have scored centuries; Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja.
India won the third Test by a record margin of 434 runs at the Niranjan Shah Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. The hosts only need a win to seal the series and will be hoping to win the fourth Test in Ranchi and win the series. However, England need to win the fourth Test as they are in a do-or-die situation and a defeat will end Ben Stokes’ unbeaten run in bilateral Test series as captain.
“You can’t just resort to the old mantra ‘this is how we play’ because Test cricket is about adapting to the conditions, especially in India where the nature of the pitch can change almost overnight over the course of five matches. -day trial. If you get in, you have to make it count. Look at the first three Tests: England won the first after Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 before India hit back with successive double centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and 131 from Rohit Sharma,” wrote Nasser Hussain in his column for DailyMail.
Nasser Hussain reminds England of the ashes
Nasser Hussain cited England’s use of the short ball technique during the 2023 Ashes as an example of how they bounced back in the series after falling behind 0-2 at home. Despite this, they tied the series 2-2. The Rajkot defeat was the team’s sixth in 21 Tests since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took over as coach and captain in mid-2022.
“They’ve done it before. Think back to the Ashes, where they got better at playing the short ball after that happy collapse at Lord’s. Bazball, as we keep being told, is about smart cricket, not mindless cricket. Now they need to prove it again,” Hussain added.
England was the last team to defeat India at home in a Test series which was back in 2012 when Sir Alastair Cook led the English team against India and won the series 2-1. Since then, India have won 16 consecutive Test series at home and they hope to continue their unbeaten streak by winning the ongoing Test series against England, which will be their 17th consecutive home win in bilateral Test series.
