'As for Bazball forget it' - Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar denounces England's aggressive approach in Ashes 2023

In the ongoing Ashes 2023, Australia has been phenomenal in the first two games, taking an impressive 2-0 lead in the five-match Test series. However, England bounced back in the third game and are in a commanding position in the game. Meanwhile, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar feels that England's aggressive approach in Test cricket is nothing short of a failure against big teams.

In his latest column, Gavaskar busted England's 'Bazball' approach and said that it only worked against lesser-quality teams. He wrote, "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."

Notably, Sunil Gavaskar is not the first person to criticise the aggressive style of Test cricket. Earlier, former England superstar Geoffrey Boycott also criticised his side's aggressive play. "They (the England team) lost sight of the fact that the object is to win, and if you want to entertain, then yes, by all means. But why can't you win and entertain? When you get ahead of yourself—and that's what England did—you stop thinking. If they're going to just entertain, they might as well be a circus. That's it; go be a professional circus around the world," he had said.

Will England bounce back in the Ashes 2023?

In the ongoing Leeds Test of the Ashes in 2023, England needs 100 runs to win the game. while the Australian team needs six more wickets to win their first-ever Test series in England since 2001. On Day 4, Australia started well as they clinched two early wickets. Mitchell Starc dismissed Ben Duckett and Mooen Ali on the cheap. However, Zak Crawley and Joe Root tried to rescue their team.

They added 33 runs for the third wicket before Crawley succumbed Mitchell Marsh. He scored 44 runs off 55 balls, with the help of five boundaries. Meanwhile, Root scored 21 runs off 33 balls with the help of three boundaries. Currently, Harry Brook and skipper Ben Stokes are trying to get England back in the game.