India vs England: Ben Stokes and Co give hosts a reality check as 'Bazball' announces itself in India in style

Ollie Pope was caught by Rohit Sharma at slip off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling for just 1 after making his way to the crease on Thursday. He would later end up collecting a game-changing 196 on a wicket that wasn’t exactly easy to bat on, taking on the famed Indian spin trio that had made visiting batters dance to their tunes for so many years. Tom Hartley had been smashed for consecutive sixes by Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first two deliveries on Test debut, and would bleed 63 runs from nine overs at an economy that would somewhat acceptable in the T20 format depending on the situation, but is considered downright criminal in Tests. He would bounce back three days later with a memorable spell of 7/62 , running through the Indian batting lineup like a hot knife through butter. IND vs ENG:  Hosts suffer 4th-narrowest loss, Hartley sets new record and more stats from first Test The story for the Ben Stokes-led England team followed a largely similar script across four days of riveting action at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at the start of the five-Test series. They had been outplayed in the first two days of the match, conceding a massive 190-run first innings lead to the Indians. England were then were facing the prospect of an a defeat, possibly by an innings, inside three days when they were reduced to 163/5 with Ben Stokes getting cleaned up by a beauty from Ravichandran Ashwin.

A fifer 🖐 on debut

Tom hardly put a foot wrong as he brings the visitors to the brink of victory 🎉#INDvsENG #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #JioCinemaSports #BazBowled pic.twitter.com/toBszaZ8yM

— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) January 28, 2024

From there on, England not only took the match to a fourth day but ended up scripting one of the most memorable turnarounds witnessed in the format in recent memory, stunning the crowd into silence and giving the Indians, who have grown accustomed to collecting wins on their turf even when half asleep, a rude jolt with a 28-run victory. England’s victory served as a reminder of the joys of the Test format — one that truly tests the calibre of a team, where a side could be down for a couple of days and still fight their way back. It was only fitting for England to pull off the emphatic victory on a day when West Indies pulled off one of the greatest triumphs ever against the world Test champions in their fortress of The Gabba. The outstanding performance from the visitors was also symbolic of just how good a side this team has become since Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over as captain and head coach respectively of the red-ball side, with the much-talked-about ‘Bazball’ finally making its debut in India and announcing itself in style.

A week to remember 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/e5SDfafk6U

— Tom Hartley (@tomwhartley2) January 28, 2024

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Sure, the match did witness a lot of sweeping and reverse-sweeping, with the focus mainly on the latter, which threw the plans of the Indian spinners into disarray and hardly allowed Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel to settle down in the second innings after dictating terms in the first. Reverse sweep has become something of a go-to shot for the English batters now, especially in these conditions, and batters from the top order all the way down to the tail have executed this shot across the four days. Pope went to the extent of even going for a dil-scoop from out of the blue, and even highlighted his ability to settle down and absorb pressure over an extended period when the going got tough. But ‘Bazball’ isn’t all about playing T20-like shots and going for reverse sweeps against the spinners more often than not. For England, ‘Bazball’ lies as much in the mind as it does in their shot-making. The term also highlights a shift in the team’s mindset when it comes to approaching the traditional format — where things had reached an all-time low under Joe Root’s leadership with a series defeat in the Caribbean in early 2022. That the likes of Hartley and Rehan Ahmed could advance down the track and go for the big shots against someone of Ashwin’s stature — among the top spinners of this generation and one of the greatest the game has witnessed — highlights precisely this winning mindset that has come to define the team. It’s not just with the bat that they are able to highlight this shift in their approach. England had set a target of 231 that was certainly challenging for the Indians to chase on a deteriorating Uppal wicket on the fourth day but was by no means impossible. But it was the manner in which the Englishmen responded with the ball that ultimately allowed them to successfully defend the target. Stokes had set tight fields around the batters even when the Indians were off to a positive start in their chase, which resulted in Pope collecting a couple of crucial catches at short leg/silly point to dismiss Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. Jonny Bairstow did his part in building pressure by kneeling at the second slip position for the low grabs, forcing batters to ditch the option of playing with soft hands hoping the nick would keep the ball low and go fishing for other options. Hartley had been given a rough welcome to Test cricket on the opening day but the manner with which he responded with the ball in his left hand on the fourth day, his setup of Rohit belying his lack of experience, was nothing short of extraordinary. Until he dismissed Jaiswal and Gill in the same over and got rid of Rohit shortly after, the other English spinners weren’t quite able to trouble the Indian batters.

What a win. Pope simply outstanding. But, the show of confidence Stokes showed in Tom Hartley at the end of day 1 has paid dividends. Fantastic captaincy leading to an amazing victory

— Steven Finn (@finnysteve) January 28, 2024

Hartley not only helped England regain control of the match, getting rid of Axar right after tea and breaking a steady partnership with Rahul that had started to look threatening at the interval, his flurry of wickets would ultimately open the floodgates as India lost wickets in a heap, going from 95/3 to 119/7. Ashwin and Srikar Bharat as well as the last-wicket pair of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj did make things interesting with a couple of solid partnerships, but it only helped India cross 200 only to fall short in the end. And when the wickets weren’t falling, there would be moments of on-field brilliance like Stokes running Jadeja out with a brilliant direct hit at the non-striker’s end, highlighting England’s ability to manufacture breakthroughs from out of nowhere. “If you lose, you wake up in the morning, still have a good crack and life and move on. We don’t fear failure. Go out and express yourself and you’ll be all right,” skipper Stokes said in the post-match presentation, in which he also described the Hyderabad win as “100% our greatest victory” since he took over as captain. The defeat isn’t the end of the world for the Indians as far as this series is concerned. They had suffered similar jolts in the past — against the Root-led English side in 2021, against Australia in 2017 as well as in Sri Lanka in 2015 — but were able to bounce back from those defeats each time. But England’s ‘Bazball’ approach will have given captain Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid plenty to think about as far as their approach to home Tests is concerned. If anything, their air of invulnerability will have taken a hit after this defeat.