Even though the word Bazball is coined after Brendon McCullum, the England Test coach doesn’t like it. In fact, Test skipper Ben Stokes reveals, McCullum “hates” the word.
Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes joined hands in May 2022, and ahead of their first series together in June, at home against New Zealand, ESPNcricinfo’s UK editor Andrew Miller coined the term “Bazball” as a sort of homage to McCullum for his attacking brand of cricket, earlier as a batsman and then as England’s coach.
The word now has stuck in everyone’s minds as England has achieved plenty of success under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, winning 14 out of 19 Test matches so far, which includes a rare Test win in India recently.
Moreover, it’s the aggressive, fearless brand of cricket that the England batters have played under this pair that has helped spread the word Bazball all over the cricket fraternity.
However, Ben Stokes says the players don’t use it in the dressing room and McCullum utterly hates it.
“It’s a phrase that was created by the media. Something that we try and stay away from. It just came from what we have managed to do over the last two years and how we’ve played. We don’t necessarily like it, Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) hates it! Whenever that word pops up, we just try to say that’s how England plays Test cricket,” Stokes told JioCinema last week.
In November, the term Bazball was added to the Collins dictionary describing it as: “a style of Test cricket in which the batting side plays in a highly aggressive manner.”
Hyderabad win our greatest triumph since I’ve been captain: Ben Stokes
Of the 14 wins under his tenure, Ben Stokes said the latest victory in Hyderabad over Rohit Sharma’s team was the greatest.
England stunned everyone by winning the Test match by 28 runs after conceding a first innings trail of 190 runs. No team in the 21st century has overhauled such a big deficit to win a Test in India.
“Since I’ve taken the captaincy on, we’ve had a lot of fantastic moments as a team,” Stokes said. “We’ve had a lot of great victories, we’ve been involved in some amazing games. But I think [with] where we are and who we’re playing against, this victory is 100%, definitely our greatest triumph since I’ve been captain.”
The second Test match starts on Thursday in Vizag.
Also Read: IND vs ENG: A Look At India’s Test Record In Vizag
