India pose acid test for Bazball in epic year

Judgment awaits McCullum and Stokes across defining run of games that ends with the Ashes.

- By Cameron Ponsonby

Ten Tests in a row, starting with five at home to India and followed by the Ashes, is what England cricket fans have been craving - the chance to go head-to-head with the world’s other powerhouse teams.

The jury on “Bazball” — England’s own brand of attacking, guilt-free cricket that has defined the past three years — is out, but after these legacy-defining series no one will be left in doubt.

Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have performed a social experiment with English cricket. Assuming responsibility for a team with one win in 17 Test matches, the head coach and captain lifted the pressure by telling the team that couldn't win that it didn’t matter if they lost.

It was a psychological trick designed to get the best out of a forlorn but talented group. And it worked. In Stokes’s and McCullum’s first 12 matches, they won 11. Every selection decision paid off and every hunch was proven right. Not least by giving 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed a debut in Karachi, who, with only three first-class matches to his name, became England's youngest ever Test cricketer and took a five-wicket haul.

England fans were giddy; the rest of the world nauseous. This was strait-laced England, the team that existed to bore, disappoint and lose, who were instead high on their own supply and breaking records. But then things began to change. The home Ashes in 2023 finished in a two-all draw, before England were thrashed 4-1 away to India in early 2024. Just as quickly as the goodwill had been earned, it started to fade.

When England were winning, McCullum and Stokes’s relentless positivity and “be where your feet are” mantra came across as wise. But when they were losing, it came across as weird. And for many, just plain annoying.