Former Australian spinner Xavier Doherty has attacked the England cricket team for its ‘Bazball’ approach in the ongoing Ashes 2023 series and said that the method is a bit of a flop when it comes to England trying to play with that approach.
Xavier Doherty Slammed Bazball Approach
Xavier feels that the England batters have not been consistent as their ‘Bazball’ approach has failed to deceive. England was bowled out for 237 runs in the first innings in at Headingley in response to Australia’s total of 263 runs with Ben Stokes’ playing a captain’s knock with 80.
In a conversation with SEN Tassie, Xavier said he was disappointed with Bazball and called it a reckless approach with the bat.
“I went into this Ashes series looking forward to Bazball and this exciting brand of cricket that England play and it’s turned out to be a bit of a flop, I reckon,”
He added: “I think it’s just an excuse for them to go out and do whatever they want with no accountability and just be reckless. England have at times played some really good cricket and then just do something awfully stupid and then just say, ‘ah well, that’s all just part of it”
Xavier said that excluding Ben Stokes, the rest of the England batters have been reckless. He gave the example of Moeen Ali’s dismissal in the second innings. He said:
“At the moment during this Test they’ve got themselves in a reasonable position… but outside Ben Stokes they’ve generally just been reckless and thrown the game back in favour of Australia,”
He added: “Moeen Ali’s dismissal last night, it’s just unbelievable. They found themselves in a bit of strife and Ali and Stokes tried to wrestle the momentum back, Pat Cummins bounces him, he gets a top edge and it fell 20 meters short of a fielder, Australia the very next ball, puts a fielder right where the ball landed and he does the exact same thing and gets caught and walks off like, ‘it’s just the way we play’
Xavier on Jonny Bairstow’s controversial run-out
Further, Xavier spoke about the outrage following the controversial run-out of Jonny Bairstow. He said that the backlash was only an opportunity for the England fans to call Australians cheat. He also showed a mirror to them by calling it out as ‘mob mentality’. He said:
“It’s just another excuse for the English to call Australia cheats… it’s like a mob mentality,”
He added: “It’s just this unaccountable mindset that they’ve got, the rules don’t apply to us anymore so we’ll do and say whatever we feel like and then we’ll be the upholders of the spirit of cricket and we’ll tell other people what they should be doing,”
