'Will we back the players?': Ravichandran Ashwin on should India play Bazball style of cricket

Bazball, England’s new aggressive style of playing cricket, has transformed the Test scene for the side. Fans in India have also found Bazball appealing and many wonder why India don’t also go the Bazball way. Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has now addressed the question. He questioned if the selectors and fans will back players when they lose their wickets trying to hit every other ball and the team loses a couple of matches. “We are playing Test cricket very well. But we will go through a transition soon. And things won’t be easy during that phase. There will be a few issues here and there. But let’s assume India adopts Bazball during this phase. Let us assume a player throws his bat at everything like Harry Brook and gets out and we lose two Test matches. What will we do? Will we back Bazball and the players?” asked Ashwin on his YouTube channel. Bazball (named after England Test coach Brendon McCullum, who is called Baz by his followers) has been a two-edged sword for England. Ever since the style was employed, England have fared significantly well; winning 13 out of 18 matches as against having just one win in 17 matches before the change. But after England, who hosted Ashes 2023, lost the first two games, the aggressive approach drew criticism from old English veterans, who decried the approach as prioritising ‘entertainment’ over the game. Ashwin opined that such an approach requires the confidence of the selectors before players start taking risks. He then said, “We will drop at least four players from our playing XI. That’s how our culture has always been. We can’t copy others’ style of play just because it worked for them. It works for them because their management is fully in with this style of play, their selectors back the players to play this way. In fact, even their crowd and Test match-watching public are backing the team in this process. But we can’t do this.” With the ODI World just two months away, Ashwin also called on the fans to root positively for the Men in Blue during the tournament, which will be played from 5 October to 19 November. “Winning a World Cup is not easy guys. Just because we play a certain player or drop a certain player, we can’t win. All of us are hindsight kings. The hindsight operations don’t work here. We have qualified for the semi-final of almost all major tournaments. On that day we haven’t been good enough,” said Ashwin.