Renowned former English all-rounder Ian Botham believes that England’s adoption of an aggressive ‘Bazball’ strategy, spearheaded by Ben Stokes, has injected a fresh life into Test cricket. England are currently on a Test tour of India and registered a win in the opening match of the series before conceding a 107-run loss in the second.
Following the appointments of Brendon McCullum as head coach and Stokes as captain, England underwent a significant transformation in their approach to the traditional format. This new era has seen England revolutionising their Test cricket approach, embracing a bold and dynamic style of play reminiscent of McCullum’s captaincy reign with New Zealand.
Botham believes that the ‘Bazball’ style of play is also attracting the Indian crowd to Test matches.
“You just have to look at the crowds. The crowds are now starting to come back to Test cricket,” Botham told ‘SENQ 693’.
“Playing against India 20-30 years ago in India, the grounds were heaving. Suddenly, the IPL came along and so did one-day cricket and the crowds then plummeted. People are now coming back and wanting to see (Bazball).”
There has been an impressive fan turnout across both Tests in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam so far. In fact, over 32,000 fans attended the first Test in Hyderabad, setting a new record for Test attendance at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
It is worth highlighting that there was remarkable attendance during India’s Test series against Australia last year, too. Tickets for the Tests in Delhi, Indore, and Ahmedabad were sold out.
Further commenting on ‘Bazball’, Botham insisted that the aggressive approach has reaped rewards for the English team in addition to entertaining the fans.
“You are entertainers at the end of the day and if you want people to come to the games, you have to entertain. They don’t want to see someone score 1.2 runs per hour, you want to see guys just boss the game.
“You are going to lose one or two games here or there but England have played 15 and won 12. England sells out games across all five days now which was just unheard of.
“Test cricket is now healthier than it has been for a long time,” said Botham who took 383 wickets and scored 5200 runs from 102 Tests between 1977 and 1992.
