England Persisting With Bazball Always Will Come Down To Attitude: Ricky Ponting
With much of English red-ball cricket focused on ensuring the team’s best performance at the Ashes, it’s no surprise that their latest innovation — the aggressive concept of ‘Bazball’ under coach Brendon McCullum — has everyone wondering if it will help England reclaim the Ashes in 2023, following a humiliating 4-0 loss earlier this year.
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who witnessed Australia’s entire domination in the 2000s, offered his thoughts on whether Bazball can maintain its momentum and enable England, led by Ben Stokes, to find their mojo against their toughest rivals next summer.
England Have Got Right Balance Of Experience And Youth At The Moment: Ricky Ponting
“It comes down to skill, obviously, but it also comes down to attitude,” said Ponting.
“If these current players are willing to play the same way all the time, regardless of the scenario, regardless of the situation, then it is sustainable. I think if you look back through probably the best teams in cricket’s history, I think they have been able to keep pretty much a good, solid core group of players together,” continued Ponting.
And what England have got right now is a good balance of youth and experience. Some of the younger guys they have brought into that team for that last series obviously didn’t have the mental scars that some of the older other guys might have had.
“The emergence of Jonny Bairstow in the middle order and Joe Root continuing on what has been an amazing 18 months, it’s going to come down to the attitude. The players are not going to lose their skills in the next few months, but if they just happen to have a few bad games where this really positive, aggressive approach doesn’t pay off, are they going to be strong enough mentally to keep playing that way?” concluded Ponting.
England will next face South Africa in a Test series in August.
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