What on earth has happened over the last month or so? As a veteran of the 80s and 90s and various other doldrums this is unthinkable, unimaginable stuff. (To be a grinch for a moment, ‘Bazball’ is a crap word.) But Joe Root must be playing better than any English batsman ever. And then Stokes. Anderson. Potts. Even Jack Leach. And Jonny Bairstow? Who knew? Wonderful stuff. And they were so so sh*t so recently.
English cricket
It’s been brill hasn’t it. There was some money to be made too, as there have been times in some of the games where an England win looked miles off. I wonder what odds we’d have got when England were 55 for 6 at Headingley, particularly as New Zealand squandered a chance to get Overton out, by not reviewing the LBW.
These past few weeks, as well as the crazy summer of 2019, have been very timely, as my son is now 12 and I’ve been choosing my moment to introduce him to the delights of the Western Terrace. He enjoyed watching the World Cup on TV with me, and was as excited as me watching Ben Stokes (and Jack Leach) at Headingley on TV (we had tickets for the following day…d’oh!), but I didn’t think the time was right. I took the plunge and got tickets to day 4 at Headingley a couple of weeks ago and he loved it, especially when Root came out to bat.
I’ve now booked tickets for a couple of the 100 games. Not sure whether it appeals to me so much, but Ben Stokes is playing for the Northern Superchargers (who thought these names up???) and I think the boy will enjoy watching the ball get smacked all over the place.
A fantastic run of matches this summer highlighting all the best things about test cricket. Shame there’s no more till August now though as focus shifts to the Hundred. And what’s going on with these new Duke balls which seem to need changing with tedious regularity….
I think this change in approach to test cricket is welcome and somewhat inevitable given that all the other formats are calibrated towards thrashing a bat around. More players are better at smashing a quick fifty. McCullum was an exciting player and his influence is everything here.
It’s the Blast quarter final for me on Saturday night in Taunton. The cricket has been great fun, the weather mostly kind. The booze consumed at each game (not by me) is something else.
Likewise Fortune, I am taking the whole family. Looking forward to it immensely
Did you see the beer chain, or whatever it’s called, at Headingley? At one point the chain of empties went halfway around the Western Terrace…before they started getting thrown everywhere and the punch up started.
My son hates booze. He’s 12 and determined that he will never drink. Of course, this all stems from his mother’s love of the stuff and the trouble it has caused. So when we go to the cricket we sit in the ‘no alcohol’ section, which is fine by me, as I don’t drink anyway.
Beer snake? Been on the Western Terrace a few times. Totally nuts
A big chain of all the empty beer glasses…which are cardboard cups, rather than glass, of course. There were people around the ground creating a pile about 6 foot high and then going over and adding them to the snake. It was quite bizarre.
What are you English going to do without the test team to complain about? Success is so boring.
Bloody women’s football (or some such)!
So happy to see Jonny Bairstow finally fulfilling his potential in test cricket, especially given his difficult upbringing. Probably the best batsman in the world in 2022, maybe joint no. 1 with Root!
If it carries on in this vein, it will be brilliant when good (as now) but soul destroying when bad.
I liked it better when you were shit.
We’re English, so so did we.
We haven’t tried this approach overseas yet. Be patient.
To be fair as soon as Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow fail together we’ll be in trouble again and all will be right with the world.
I’ve advocated an aggressive opener for some time now. My preferred choice has always been Jason Roy. He was dumped after 4 tests against Australia against Cummins and co on wickets prepared for Brosd and Anderson on the back of the World Cup win. Other openers have been given 20 tests of passively waiting to be got out. I suspect he’ll be given another go under this regime. Bazball is all about putting bowlers under pressure. Make them think about what they’re doing it will be fascinating to watch it develop, the affect it has on other teams. It could be seen as the turning point in the way the longer form of the game is played and the saviour of test cricket in countries where it was dying. Evolution of a sport in front ofour eyes
I too have been surprised at their results. And disappointed too, 3-0 vs NZ when we won the world test series or whatever it was called. After their recent showing in Australia it’s even more surprising. Must be the lame English wickets.
No reason really, apart from the fact that it’s magnificent.