IND vs ENG: Why Bazball is not just about England’s aggressive batting

Fast bowler James Anderson is at top of his run-up and ready to run in. The India batsmen R Ashwin and Dhruv Jorel, who have been dead batting for a while, are ready. But captain Ben Stokes isn’t. Not many would venture to the vastly experienced Anderson about field positions but Stokes repeatedly does. Perhaps the long leg can be moved to backward square-leg position. That man on the off side moved to leg slip perhaps? More often than not, even Anderson has been lured by his captain’s imagination. The other bowlers have been wilfully moulded by the most visibly involved captain on a cricket field in world cricket right now.

The Bazball when bowling, let’s call it Bazbaiting, is as fascinating to watch as their batting as Stokes doesn’t let the game drift even an inch.

In many ways, Bazbaiting is almost straight out of maidan cricket. It’s how kids with creative imagination would play cricket: a joyous abandon, risk-taking urges, a seeming lack of patience and keenness to create something out of nothing.

That’s some start! 🙌

2⃣ wickets in the first 4⃣ overs

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🇮🇳 #INDvENG 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | #EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/xAkcnobw4v

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Once again, it came to the fore on a flat track at Rajkot where there wasn’t much help for the bowlers and England had two young spinners learning on the job. Stokes is the tinkerman par excellence, swiping his players around to fit them in his mental puzzle as the singular aim seems to be how to get a batsman out.

Wood to Ashwin

For Ashwin against Mark Wood trying to go short in general, Stokes had a short-leg, short midwicket, square-leg, leg slip, cover point and backward point. Ashwin had a couple of iffy moments when it bounced more but weathered it on the comatose pitch.

For Ravindra Jadeja on the opening day, he packed the on-side field for Tom Hartley: Short mid-on, short leg, short midwicket, deepish mid-on and deep midwicket. At one point, he had a very straightish short mid-on in the path of the non-striker and a wide mid-on to try getting Jadeja to swipe across the line. It was tried against Jorel too on the second day.

A serious effort 💪

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🇮🇳 #INDvENG 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | @MAWood33 pic.twitter.com/TOrFX8uRCC

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) February 16, 2024

For Rohit, on the first day, there were three men in the arc from deep square-leg to fine-leg and forced Rohit to try to keep the ball down or attempt a six. Eventually, Rohit would fall, trying to pull in front of square but unable to clear midwicket.

In their successful series in Pakistan, Stokes had choked the batsmen on flat tracks with his innovative approach. An umbrella field close on the leg side, usually Pakistani batsmen’s strong areas, stood waiting for an aerial flick. The bowling was imaginative, more than a couple wickets fell to leg-side catches by the wicketkeepers. In the past, a dismissal which seemed unfortunate now seemed a deliberate conscious effort from the fielding team. If the batsmen showed patience, then the seamers formed a ring on the off side, consistently inviting a drive.

Why Stokes's captaincy has affected over rates

Captain Ben Stokes's regular interventions in field settings has affected England's over rates and their spot on the WTC points table. England are third from the bottom on the WTC points table. They were second-last at the end of the first Test they won. Former England captain Kevin Pietersen brought up the reason for their fate. “Slow over rates; they have lost so many points. If not they would be in the top 3.” Indeed they would be. If they hadn’t been docked 13 points for slow over rates in two Tests against Australia.

With men catching at unusual places and the bowling tailored to it, the debutant Jorel and Ashwin crawled slowly. 62 runs had come in 27 overs in the first session but if not for the spinners’ inexperience and their penchant to bowl bad balls which were put away, India’s run rate would have been even more slower. Only Sarfaraz Khan had shown the skill and the mindset needed to take on Bazbaiting, making the spinners bleed even off their decent deliveries, but otherwise, Stokes had made the Indians feel as if survival was a great result on this flat pitch.

Ian Chappell once described the mental strains of captaincy thus: “I think if you’ve had six hours in the field as a captain and you are not mentally whacked at the end of that, then you have not done your job properly.” It will be good to check with Stokes how he feels in the evenings. It won’t be a surprise if he says, ‘Bloody good, mate’.

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