‘They will in time’ – Broad believes other sides will look to emulate England’s 'Bazball' approach
England, under the leadership of Ben Stokes and with former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum as the head coach, have tasted great success in Test cricket, winning nine of the 10 Tests ever since the two took over in the respective roles at the start of their home summer last year.
They started off with a 3-0 clean-sweep of New Zealand at home with successful run-chases in each of the three Tests, before gunning down a 378-run target in just 76.4 overs in the rescheduled Edgbaston Test against India. They rounded off the home season with another 2-1 series win, over South Africa.
A feature of their success was the ultra-aggressive approach, and that was maintained during the Test tour of Pakistan, as they swept the series 3-0, their first away win against the opponents since 2000-01. A key highlight was their staggering 506/4 on Day 1 of the first Test in Rawalpindi, which is an all-time record score on the opening day of a Test.
Senior speedster Stuart Broad, who has been a part of the England Test setup for more than 15 years, believes that other cricketing nations would look to emulate England’s approach in future. He also emphasised that England’s method had a place for cricketers with different styles.
“There has been some attention on whether other teams will try to emulate our positive approach to Test cricket and, although it hasn’t been evident yet, they will in time because players have so much expansion in their games now,” Broad stated in his Daily Mail column.
“Yet you must also play your own style. For example, I wouldn’t expect Sir Alastair Cook to come in and hit 80 off 50. He did all right scoring his 12,000 Test runs with his own method and he would still work in this team.”
Broad further added that certain aggressive players from the recent past might have benefited from adopting the new-found approach.
“But I could envisage certain players of the recent past that might be looking at us and thinking of what might have been. Shane Watson coming in at six in a team like this? You’d be licking your lips.”
The pacer believed that other sides might try to “speed up” because it would make results possible on flatter decks. He added that fans were more accepting of this approach to the game.
“One of the reasons that I believe others will try to speed up, though, is that you can get results out of draws, particularly on flat pitches,” said Broad, the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Tests currently with 566 scalps from 159 Tests.
“We’ve already witnessed that fans allow you that extra bit of leeway to be aggressive because they know how enjoyable it is to watch and so, when we are 50 for eight, we are not mauled for a bad performance.”
The first of two New Zealand vs England Tests will be played at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui from Thursday, February 16.