After capitulating in Perth, the blowtorch has been firmly on the English batting unit in the extended build-up to the Gabba Test, with several critics turning their attention to Bazball poster child, Zak Crawley.
No player epitomises the Bazball mantra then Crawley. Despite a mediocre record, the 27-year-old has been rubber-stamped into the England lineup, with unequivocal support from captain and coach.
This backing from the English powerbrokers is born from a belief that Crawley can dominate attacks and put pressure back on the bowlers, with his ability to stand tall at the crease and drive the ball on top of its bounce.
After showing some promise on a horror 2021-22 Ashes tour, Crawley was identified as an English batter who suited the bouncy Australian conditions.
Crawley has shown this ability in glimpses across his career, headlined by his sparkling 184 at Old Trafford in the 2023 Ashes, where he took apart the champion Australian pace trio in one of the great English innings.
But ultimately, those performances have been too few and far between. The numbers do not lie – 60 Tests at an average of 30.96 are not the figures of man who deserves to have his spot in the side locked in.
But Crawley has remained one of the first picked under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. Despite averaging less than 10 in New Zealand last year and being terrorised by Matt Henry, Crawley’s position was under no threat heading into the English summer, before he cashed in with a cushy hundred against Zimbabwe to end any doubt around his position heading into marquee series against India and Australia.
Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hameed topped the recent County Championship, with both averaging in excess of 60 and Hameed captaining Nottinghamshire to their first title in 15 years.
Despite both having been exposed at Test level in the past, their prolific run scoring in the first-class arena, coupled with Crawley’s record, should have seen them considered for an opportunity on the Ashes tour.
But both men appear blacklisted from the current English set-up, with their perceived dour approaches to batting not considered to befit the Bazball way.
Brendon McCullum. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
In 2023, Stokes even went as far as to say Alastair Cook may not even get selected under his captaincy, despite the Essex opener scoring over 12,000 runs at an average of 45 and being one of the most reliable top order batters of the modern era.
And therein lies the problem with Bazball as a stubborn, almost cult-like devotion to a style of cricket with an inability to adapt or consider those who do not fit the mould.
Crawley, despite being lauded as a player who would thrive in Australian conditions, has started the series with a pair, with both dismissals caused by loose hard-handed drives at the ball. Only now his position appears under pressure.
While England have stole the world cricket headlines following their first-test drubbing, South Africa have been quietly franking their credentials as the best side in test cricket, downing India 2-0 on the road.
And there is one man in the Proteas side who has caught my eye in the way he has approached his red-ball game, particularly when in juxtaposition to the Bazballers. That man is Tristan Stubbs
The South African burst onto the scene as a hard-hitting, aggressive middle-order batter, earning an IPL contract as a 21-year-old, before he had made his international debut for the Proteas in T20 cricket as a finisher.
Having got a taste of the top level in the shorter formats, a strong first-class season saw Stubbs earn his Test debut in January 2024.
Despite middling returns in his first dozen games, Stubbs held his position in the side, and was part of the Proteas’ World Test Championship victory over Australia earlier this year. But the youngster has come into his own in the back half of 2025.
Across South Africa’s tours of Pakistan and India this year, Stubbs has been a strong contributor with the bat, averaging just under 48 across four Tests in difficult conditions, and being a vital reason why the Proteas won three of those four games on the subcontinent.
Following his first innings dig of 49 off 112 in the Proteas second Test against India, Stubbs credited the the hard work he had done on his defence in establishing himself in the side.
“I’ve worked a lot on my defence. I had to, coming in as a white-ball player and then being asked (to bat) No.3, so I grafted hard on my defence”, Stubbs told Cricinfo.
He went onto to describe the “mental” adjustments he had made in the longest format around “tightening his game plan, especially if it’s doing a bit up front and reigning in your scoring options.”
Stubbs followed up those comments with a patient 94 off 180 deliveries in the second innings, grinding India into desolation to help set up the Proteas’ massive 408-run triumph in Guwahati.
For all intents and purposes, Stubbs is the type of Bazballer that Stokes and McCullum would drool over. He is a powerful striker with the ability to change a game.
But while the natural stroke-maker is reaping the rewards of honing the red-ball fundamentals of defence, patience and shot-selection, Crawley and the rest of the English batting unit appear both unable and unwilling to adapt their approach.
Crawley and co should take a leaf out of Stubbs’ and South Africa’s book and look to help its talented shotmakers learn to play through the gears. But Stokes and McCullum seem insistent on backing their team to “play their way” and to go “even harder” when under pressure.
There is no doubt this English lineup has the raw talent to be successful in Australian conditions. It is the best English side to come Down Under since 2010-11.
But unless they are willing to reflect on their own shortcomings, adapt their game and go to work on developing some red ball fundamentals, they will be leaving these shores empty-handed once again.
>Cricket News
%20(3).jpeg)
0 Comments