At the 2015 ODI World Cup, Brendan “Baz” McCullum had a ball opening the batting for New Zealand, smashing bowlers to all parts of the field during the tournament.
His attacking mindset was perfectly suited to the 50 over game and his phenomenal strike rate of 188.5 was too much for run-of-the-mill bowling attacks to handle as the Black Caps surged into the final.
In the decider, at a packed MCG, he went for a wild swing at a Mitchell Starc in-swinger in the opening over of the match and was bowled for a duck.
His team tried to bounce back but ultimately the Australians proved way too strong and were the ones holding the trophy aloft.
Sound familiar?
Zak Crawley tried to get on the front foot in the opening over of each innings against Starc in last week’s first Ashes Test and was out without scoring on both occasions.
McCullum’s approach as England coach has completely reinvigorated England cricket from the moribund outfit which was on life support under Joe Root’s captaincy and Chris Silverwood’s coaching.
But like his memorable run through the World Cup a decade ago it’s the kind of blueprint which can lift an average team above middling opponents.
However, when it comes to the crunch, it’s not enough to knock over a powerhouse like the Australian team or the Indians for that matter.
There’s a lot of style but not much substance to the Bazball ethos.
To be blunt, Bazball is a soft approach.
If you believe the spin from within the English dressing room, their batters are being brave by taking on the bowling from the get-go, irrespective of the conditions so they can try to dominate proceedings.
It would be much braver for England to trust their technique and grind out Test quality innings at a quick, instead of frenetic, tempo rather than flashing their blade at deliveries and then congratulate themselves even when it collapses in a heap.
As was the case in spectacular fashion on Saturday when they went from being in the lead by 100 runs with nine wickets in hand to copping an eight-wicket hiding in the space of a couple of sessions.
This England team actually has plenty of talent but much of it is going to waste because of the tactics that are being brainwashed into McCullum’s chosen few.
Joe Root is one of Test cricket’s greatest run-scorers but he will continue to fail on Australian surfaces if he keeps wafting at deliveries outside off stump early in his innings which led to his downfall during Saturday’s capitulation at Optus Stadium after falling for a duck to a Starc special in the first dig.
These Australian wickets are not the made-to-measure Bazball flat decks that England have been feasting upon in recent years.
Ben Duckett was dancing down the wicket in the first over he faced on Saturday, trying to unsettle Scott Boland.
This strategy worked to some effect in the first innings when Boland went wicketless but the Victorian had the last laugh when he ripped through the overly aggressive English batters on day two.
Duckett has all the tools to be one of England’s best openers of the modern era but when you virtually refuse to let any deliveries go as an opener you are always treading a fine line between keeping the scoreboard ticking over and gifting your wicket away.
Test cricket for the best part of 150 years has been built around batters who sell their wicket dearly.
For this England team, their wicket is always up for grabs and the cost in Perth was a little more than three overs toil for each wicket to fall.
Jason Gillespie quipped that he faced more deliveries in his famous nightwatcher double-century against Sri Lanka than the entire England team across both innings. And he was right.
Harry Brook. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Harry Brook is considered an England captain in waiting and a player who could dominate Test cricket over the next decade.
His swashbuckling style momentarily put the Aussies on the back foot on day one as he danced around the crease to chalk up 52 in the space of just 61 deliveries.
But he gifted his wicket away when England were on the verge of gaining the upper hand in the first innings and he fell for a duck in the second when he tried to cover drive a Boland delivery on the up which could have easily been left alone as it was both high and wide of off stump.
Courage is getting in behind the ball, particularly on a bouncy wicket like Perth when Starc is sending down thunderbolts.
There’s nothing courageous about the Bazball approach of backing away and presenting all three stumps.
Most people, after letting an opportunity slip like the first Ashes Test, would think that McCullum and Ben Stokes would want to temper their hell for leather approach.
Before the Ashes, former England captain Michael Vaughan was spruiking the value of what he called “Bazball with brains”, which meant maintaining an attacking philosophy but being smart enough to know when to rein it in.
There was no such evidence of this kind of intelligence last weekend.
England captain Ben Stokes. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
McCullum doubled down straight after play by saying they would not be changing their blueprint.
They did indeed come close to toppling Australia for the first time since 2015 when they hosted the last Ashes series two years ago before rain in Manchester stymied their chances.
But this is a whole new environment and if they keep batting like their slapdash Perth manner, they will need more than the high-class pace bowling of Jofra Archer to get anywhere near the Aussies over the remaining four Tests.
Stokes is coming towards the end of his career will be interesting to see whether the ECB continues to back the Bazball mantra if the team keeps coming up short against the big guns of world cricket.
They were thrashed 4-1 last year in India and were unable to beat them in the return series on home turf a few months ago.
McCullum is not going to change his ways and ultimately that could lead to his downfall if he is inflexible about scaling back the tempo at crucial stages.
Moral victories don’t get coaching contracts renewed
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