If England lose the first Test...

It was so tight that you could point to any number of reasons:-
Bairstow dropped a few.
Some other dropped catches and half chances
Early declaration while Root and Robinson were scoring freely
Brook's freak dismissal in 1st innings
Root and Bairstow's wickets in the 2nd innings trying to be far too aggressive.
Anderson below his normal standard
Lack of a genuine world class spinner
Moen Ali's finger
Stokes own limited bowling due to his injuries

And so on.

"Bazball" produces excellent entertainment. The freeing of players to play attacking cricket like they are used to in the 20/20's and one day games, instead of the more traditional steady approach is one that I think will often work. It plays to the modern players strength in this era. Its a high stakes gamble at times though, and it will not always go England's way, but there will be times when England will steamroller other teams because of this attacking play.

The potential downside is that we don't want to see players being over aggressive and giving away their wicket like we saw Bairstow and Root do in the 2nd innings.

Can't wait for the next game, as this was one of the most entertaining tests in a long time.
 
Steer said:
"Bazball" produces excellent entertainment. The freeing of players to play attacking cricket like they are used to in the 20/20's and one day games, instead of the more traditional steady approach is one that I think will often work. It plays to the modern players strength in this era. Its a high stakes gamble at times though, and it will not always go England's way, but there will be times when England will steamroller other teams because of this attacking play.

The potential downside is that we don't want to see players being over aggressive and giving away their wicket like we saw Bairstow and Root do in the 2nd innings.

Can't wait for the next game, as this was one of the most entertaining tests in a long time.
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I don't think I've seen anyone on any of the numerous threads actually being negative about Bazball and playing attacking shots. It is purely around the timing of the declaration. The two things are mutually exclusive. We can still playing attacking cricket, keeping tempo in the game without kamikaze declarations.
 
Worth remembering we were up against the world test champions who had a far better "preparation " game prior.
As above bairstow was outstanding last summer, and lets not forget he's been out for a year
 
I remember watching the 2019 Ashes and (barring Headingley, which was a one-off one man show anyway) remember thinking how on earth were we ever going to compete with Australia.

Steve Smith was taking the ****, we were being bullied by their bowlers and we had next to no confidence throughout the whole squad.

If we had gone through their middle order a little quicker yesterday and needed a couple of wickets with 100 runs left to get, then Stokes would have been a hero. To dismiss Smith, Labuschagne and Head in the succession that we did was a huge win in itself. My only concern that we're never going to be dismissing them in the same fashion every Test so our openers really need to pull their socks up but overall I thought we competed with Australia at every level the whole 5 days. An exciting start to the series.
 
jam69 said:
Worth remembering we were up against the world test champions who had a far better "preparation " game prior.
As above bairstow was outstanding last summer, and lets not forget he's been out for a year
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Bairstow also scored 98 runs, more than double those of his captain.
Bairstow should play as a batsman in any case.

The declaration was a massive factor, only nobody dare say it to Stokes.
So was the selection. Bairstow is not an Ashes class keeper, but is a class batsman. Foakes should have played as keeper, Bairstow at 5.
Duckett, Crawley, Pope and Stokes did not score enough runs.

The Ali selection was a gamble brought on by Leach's bad luck, but the bowling attack is blunt without Wood and Archer.
Stokes is now a part time bowler at best, Anderson without heavy cloud and favourable wicket is simply too old at 40 and we lack a fit Test class spinner.
 
indeedido said:
Bairstow also scored 98 runs, more than double those of his captain.
Bairstow should play as a batsman in any case.

The declaration was a massive factor, only nobody dare say it to Stokes.
So was the selection. Bairstow is not an Ashes class keeper, but is a class batsman. Foakes should have played as keeper, Bairstow at 5.
Duckett, Crawley, Pope and Stokes did not score enough runs.

The Ali selection was a gamble brought on by Leach's bad luck, but the bowling attack is blunt without Wood and Archer.
Stokes is now a part time bowler at best, Anderson without heavy cloud and favourable wicket is simply too old at 40 and we lack a fit Test class spinner.
Click to expand...
Adding to that bairstow scored more runs than Carey, who's more than capable
 
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