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Since its inception in 2022, Bazball has taken Test cricket by storm. It has brought a fresh outlook to the traditional format of the game. Although there remains no clear definition of Bazball, a term coined by an ESPN journalist, the word ‘Baz’ was derived from Brendon McCullum’s longstanding nickname after he had joined the England side as their head coach in May 2022. Bazball is merely a mindset of playing an attacking brand of cricket, both while batting and fielding. And the approach has brought rich dividends for England at home. But as Ben Stokes and his men gear up for the five-match Test series in India, billed as their toughest test thus far, India legend Sunil Gavaskar feels India have ‘Viratball’ as a perfect counter for Bazball.
India will be facing England in a long five-match series starting January 25 in Hyderabad. It will be India’s third assignment in the ongoing WTC cycle, where they are placed second in the points table after a 1-0 win in West Indies and a 1-1 draw in South Africa. This series will also be their first face-off in the red-ball format since the rescheduled fifth Test in 2022, where England had won to draw the contest 2-2. India had earlier taken a stunning 2-1 lead in 2021 after two historic wins.
Virat Kohli will be a player to watch out for in the match as he heads into the contest after an impressive show against the Proteas, where he scored 172 runs in four innings, comprising a fifty. Moreover, Kohli relishes his battle against the England attack, having amassed 1991 runs in 28 matches, the second-most he scored in Tests against a single opponent.
Speaking to Star Sports ahead of the series, Gavaskar said that the home team has ‘Viratball’ to negate England’s Bazball as he emphasised on the former India captain’s conversion rate in the format.
“Yeah, conversion means having more hundreds than fifties. With Kohli, he has as a similar amount of hundreds and fifties, that means he has a good conversion rate. The way he’s been batting, his movement looks good. With the form that he’s in, we have Viratball to counter Bazball,” said Gavaskar.
Gavaskar admitted that he is keen on watching how England’s brand-new approach to Test cricket fares against Indian spinners, primarily Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who have 500 wickets between them in 49 matches together.
“England have adopted a new approach in Test cricket in the last 1-2 years. It’s an aggressive approach where batters look to attack. They just want to play attacking cricket no matter the situation. It’ll be interesting to see if this approach works against the spinners of India,” Gavaskar added.
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