‘It’s back to good old grinding and not T20 shots’ – Sunil Gavaskar slams Bazball as Australia dominate Ashes

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar gave a critical remark on England’s ‘Bazball’ approach after Ben Stokes and Co. lost the first two Ashes Tests. Notably, Pat Cummins’ Australia took the lead in the five-match series following dramatic wins at Edbaston and Lord's.

While England have got plenty of success with their peculiarly aggressive style of play, the approach has not worked against the Aussies. Gavaskar reckoned that England's style may have worked against "lesser-quality bowling" but they will have to play the longest format the way it is played against quality teams like Australia.

“As for Bazball, forget it. It happened against lesser-quality bowling, but against a top-class Australian attack it’s back to good old grinding batting and not T20 shots. Test cricket is, after all, Test cricket. While the Australian attack was certainly taken by surprise at the approach of the England batters in the first Test match, they quickly regathered themselves and realized that this Bazball approach couldn’t succeed against their attack consistently,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for ‘Mid-Day’.

Australia went 2-0 up without much trouble: Sunil Gavaskar

The India great further highlighted Australia’s approach at Lord's, where they bowled a barrage of short balls and earned crucial breakthroughs. Gavaskar lauded Cummins and Co. for their gameplan and opined that the side took a series lead of 2-0 "without much trouble".

“They also learned that bowling short to the English batters was going to get them wickets rather than the pitched-up deliveries which the batters were prepared for. Suddenly, with having to play the ball around their ribcage and helmets, the English batsmen found they couldn’t quite cope with it and so Australia went two up without too much trouble,” he added.

Notably, Australia have not won an away Ashes since 2001 and will be gunning to reclaim the urn. Meanwhile, England too have failed to beat Australia in an Ashes series since 2015 and they will be keen to win the third Test to keep the contest alive.