“We can’t copy others' style of play.....": Ravichandran Ashwin explains why Bazball won’t work for Indian team

England’s team has turned Test cricket on its head thanks to their aggressive batting in the format.

Ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has highlighted how the daring, aggressive approach adopted by the England team in Test cricket in the recent year which has been dubbed ‘Bazball’ will now work for the Indian team.

Ever since the ECB decided to shake things up in their Test team by naming Ben Stokes the captain and hiring Brendon McCullum as the head coach in red-ball format, England has been on a roll of sorts. They defeated New Zealand, and South Africa in the Test series at home, defeated India in the rescheduled fifth Test in Edgbaston, and white-washed Pakistan in Pakistan for the first time in their history.

And then gave Australians a tough fight in the recent Ashes 2023 series, in which they managed to draw level 2-2 by winning the fifth and final Test at the Oval a couple of days back. This approach has intrigued many experts and former cricketers who are speculating which other teams can match the England team’s maverick batting in Tests.

One of the teams that always come up in discussion is India, which has been very successful in recent times on overseas tours and is almost unbeatable in India.

“If we lose two Tests while adopting Bazball, We will drop at least four players from our playing XI”- Ravi Ashwin

Ahead of the highly anticipated five-Test series against England at home in India, ace spinner Ravi Ashwin spoke about why adopting the ultra-aggressive method will not work for India.

“We are playing Test cricket very well. But we will go through a transition soon. 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?,” highlighted Ashwin on his YouTube channel.

He 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.”

England will play 5 Tests against India from January 25 onwards at venues like Hyderabad, Vizag, Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamshala.

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