Thats the thing about Bazball. It’s abrupt. It’s unexpected. And most importantly, it’s insane. For instance, in a situation where every match is crucial for your team’s survival in the World Test Championship (WTC) final race, you (being a socially certified sane person) would definitely not get a player on board who has not played an international Test match since 2022. Would you? Yeah, you might. But would you get that player to open the innings in one of the most unforgiving away conditions, completely opposite from what an opener would prefer? You wouldn’t, right? Thats why it’s called Bazball and not whatever-your-name-is-ball.
This style of cricket is twice as much a blind bargain as people deem it to be. In place of their injured opener, Zak Crawley, England thought the best person to come in would be the same guy who would have been happy to even bat at number 11. Dan Lawrence, who will take the opening position with Ben Duckett, is happy that he has somehow got into the team. While many pundits think that this decision is bound to bring problems for England, Lawrence, who is tailor-made for Bazball, thinks he is just the right guy to help the Three Lions out of this tight situation.
“I’ve been on the sidelines for a couple of years now, which has been frustrating at times,’ Lawrence said.
‘But my way of going about it is to be quite aggressive, and it’s the style of cricketer that Baz and Stokes are generally after, so I think I fit the mould”
Michael Vaughan does not seem wrong in being from the people who think Dan is just not the right fit for opening. He has only opened in a handful of First class games, never in International cricket. The closest he has been to opening in an international red-ball game is entering at the second ball of the innings during England’s tour of India in 2021. But for him, this makes it all the more exciting.
“I think my style will suit opening the batting. It might be quite a nice thing, having not played for England for a while, to actually just strap the pads on and go straight in, instead of thinking and waiting.”
All 11 of his Test matches came before the Bazball era started. No one can deny that his average of 29 does not make his case any stronger but in his own words, it’s his game awareness that does. When he comes to open against Sri Lanka in a few days, he will not be the Dan Lawrence who will settle for running the drinks. Talking about his time before the sidelines made him more Zen, the English player said,
‘I was fairly inconsistent, but that all came with being quite young. I wasn’t completely sure of my game at that time. I’m treating this as a bit of a fresh start.’
Bit of a fresh start it will be, not only for Dan but for England as a team. Bazball has to flourish without its founder providing savior moments. The McCullum-Stokes duo has very well provided a distraction that might help them catch Sri Lanka off-guard or at least turn the series into an eyeball grabber. Just as Lawrence aptly puts what defines the very core of Bazball,
“Whatever happens, it won’t be dull.”
England’s playing XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka
Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir
