Back-Ground
On the 9th March 2015 England lost to Bangladesh by 15 runs and were knocked out of the World Cup humiliated. They were however inspired by the New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and his aggressive batting. Their own captain Eoin Morgan decided from that point onwards England were going to play aggressive cricket. Four years later they would win/tie the next World Cup having created one of the most imposing batting lines up ever created. England went from scoring at an average run rate to being at times a run a ball quicker than average.
Just over 7 years later the England test team were beaten by 10 wickets against the West Indies. Finishing a horrific spell of 17 tests where they had a 1-11 record. The glorious dawn of Silverwood’s new era had collapsed, the coach gone and Root would resign as captain of the England team within a month. In all of this chaos England decided the man who would take the England test team forward was McCullum.
The man who had inspired their white ball team was now in charge of saving their red ball team. Easier said than done, England’s batting was a mess and half their bowlers were injured. Add in England’s brutal schedule and you have less than ideal conditions. However according to McCullum the challenge was why he went for it.
We have evidence for what McCullum was looking for, in 2013 he took charge of a New Zealand team that was in decline. His impact was immediate as in just 3 years they went from scoring at 2.94 an over to 3.78. Under McCullum’s captaincy New Zealand were the second quickest scoring team and while they only had a 11-11 W-L record it paved the way for them to become World Test Champions.
The Series
So could England replicate this effect, with Ben Stokes as Captain they would find out as they faced McCullum’s old team New Zealand. They talked about looking to play entertaining cricket which was soon nicknamed “Baz-Ball”. After being dismissed for just 141 on what looked to be a decent batting deck the pitchforks were already out. However England would then cruise a chase of 277 as Root hit his fastest test hundred to win by 5 wickets.
In the second test their aggressive bowling seemed to backfire as New Zealand wracked up 553 at nearly 4 an over. However in return England scored 539 at over 4 runs an over. Their decision to score aggressively seemed to have backfired slightly as they lost 205/8 scoring at 4.5 an over. They were set 299 in around 70 overs, last year in a similar situation England had chosen to bat for the draw. Today though on a flatter and quick scoring deck with Stokes and Bairstow in the team they went for it. They managed it in just 50 overs, with Bairstow hitting the second fastest test ton ever for England.
In the final test they found themselves 55/6, and Stokes was out after hitting 18 (13) and Baz-ball was under threat. Then Bairstow and Jamie Overton scored 241 at over 5 an over. Finally they became the first team ever to chase 250+ in the 4th Innings three times in a series.
Overall the results were even better than expected, the last time they white-washed a team in a 3+ series was Sri Lanka in 2018/19. And they have never scored quicker in a test series with 3+ matches. In fact only Australia in 2015/16 vs the West Indies have had a quicker scoring series.
The Run Rate
One thing notable about the dukes ball this season is how batting is easier as it gets older, where as before batting remained as difficult as ever no matter the age of the ball. And we can see this in the data, both teams averaged over 60% more with the older ball.
However England’s aggression is clear even against the new ball as despite the dismissal rate being a similar rate to New Zealand England averaged 12 more. Then against the older ball while New Zealand scored at a similar rate England pushed their run rate to over five. Despite losing wickets more often they averaged 15 more.
Bairstow had a fantastic series, scoring at over 120, the quickest ever for a batter with 350+ runs in a series. Stokes continued his six hitting development, hitting one every 33.6 balls. Even Joe Root had his quickest scoring series ever. These three are why Baz-Ball for me could work, all three are superb ODI batters and they used those skills in this series. But it wasn’t just the batting, they had numerous slips for a lot of the series especially with the new ball. And James Anderson especially seemed to be willing to go for runs and decrease his strike rate.
The Future
Overall the series could not have gone better for England, they scored plenty of runs and even Leach seemed to rediscover his attacking side. However it will be silly to expect smooth sailing from this point onwards, India and South Africa have superb bowlers themselves. Especially South Africa whose tall quick bowlers will likely get more from the old ball than New Zealand.
However this is the risk you take when playing aggressively even with early wickets, there will be times that 55/6 becomes 90 all out. When leaking runs early on will lead to conceding an above par score. However if England can still find consistent success than I am all for it. In the end the big test for England will be the 2023 Ashes, if they succeed there then they will have done something that Root was unable to do in his entire captaincy tenure, win an Ashes Series.