Bazball and ShukBall...

The similarities and...differences

Comparisons are inevitable with cricket’s ‘Big Three’ all playing at the same time. I’m going out on a limb here and saying it’s actually the ‘big four’ playing simultaneously, although measured only by a cricket metric rather than economics or global influence.

Two of the four seem willing and able to adapt their approach to Test cricket according to playing conditions and the personnel they are up against. One, on current form, seems willing but unable. The fourth, bafflingly, is simply unwilling, though you suspect they would be able.

South Africa were 247-6 after the first day against India in Guwahati facing Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj with a brand new ball. Flat pitch offering a little turn but one on which batsmen could trust their defence. Senuran Muthusamy and Kyle Verreynne are well above average numbers seven and eight but batting through a wicketless session was still some achievement. Just 69 unglamorous runs were scored in the first two hours but it was a gut-punch to the home side as powerful as 169 runs might have been.

Marco Jansen’s 93 from 91 balls with seven sixes was a stellar exhibition of straight, controlled hitting and it wouldn’t have been possible for him to ride the horse had it not been ‘broken in’ by the diligent defence of Muthusamy and Verreynne. The first session wasn’t very ‘entertaining’ (by England definition) but it was absorbing, even compelling given India’s desperation to avoid a second home series defeat in the last year.

Test cricket has been around for a long time and, as much as it has changed in that time, some basic tenets remain the same, and will almost certainly never change. New balls are responsible for more wickets than old ones and tired, irritable bowlers are more vulnerable than fresh, calm ones.

When Rishabh Pant, on his captaincy debut, was bickering with Kuldeep Yadav when South African wickets were stubbornly refusing to fall, the batsmen were rejuvenated. It helped that Jansen cam to the crease with 334 runs on the scoreboard but it was no less of a boost that the bowling team were deflated and squabbling. Good captains talk about the importance of positive body language all the time.

Bazball is enjoyable and ‘entertaining’. It has transformed the England Test team. They scored 800 on a road in Pakistan. They have chased fourth innings targets of 250+ on over 10 occasions and have never been daunted by 300+ chases. In that regard they have transformed the way cricketers think about Test cricket, and play it, but they can never change some basic, physical, scientific and biokinetic fundamentals of the game.

England’s approach to international cricket has been transformational. The first evidence I saw was the ghetto-blaster at nets. For over 25 years of attending practise sessions, I had become familiar with the austerity, sometimes funereal seriousness with which training was conducted. It was ghastly enough to put some enthusiastic young players against international cricket. England played fun, silly games during fielding practise sessions and lots of golf in between them. Sometimes instead of them.

It all made sense, to a degree. It was born out of a run of just one victory in 17 Tests but also the Covid virus which sapped so much joy out of the game. And yet, winning is surely the ultimate enjoyment. Sometimes it involves periods of cricket which are not ‘entertaining’, but they are necessary. If not, you lose. And that’s never entertaining for the people who pay your salary.

“We won’t change our blueprint or our approach,” said Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum after the horror-show in Perth. England were effectively 99-1 at lunch on the second day of the Test. The game was at their mercy, but it required serious, hard graft for a while before they could build a match-winning lead of 300+. The batsmen may have had the stomach for the fight, but that’s not their way. Flash and dazzle above graft and knuckle. Baffling.

Meanwhile, in Guwahati, the graft and patience of the brilliant Muthusamy and the skilled restraint of Verreynne, the power and precision of Jansen, has given the South Africans a wonderful chance of victory and a third victory out of four matches on the subcontinent.

If they can conjure another six victories against Bangladesh, Australia and England at home next summer – and in Sri Lanka after that – they will book a spot in the WTC final at Lord’s and a chance to defend their title. The Proteas may not be as ‘entertaining’ as England’s Bazballers, but they are prepared to learn how to win by adapting and reading game situations. Take your choice.

• Photos courtesy of M-o-C executive guest editor, Jonathan Knowles, who has also sent a column to be published tomorrow.