Nasser Hussain urges England players to play smart cricket and not headless 'Bazball'

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain has urged the England players to play according to the conditions and be smart in their game rather than playing headless cricket in the name of Bazball. England won the series opener in Hyderabad defeating India by 28 runs but then they lost two successive games in Vizag and Rajkot to give the lead to India in the ongoing five-match Test series. India and England have played three Tests as of now and the hosts are leading by 2-1.

England has had a successful Test run with the Bazball philosophy but their strategy of playing aggressive cricket is not working in India as they have been hammered by Rohit Sharma and company. Only two batters from England have scored a century in this series; Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett. Indian batters are feasting on the English bowlers as four of them have scored centuries; Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja.

India won the third Test by a record 434-run margin at the Niranjan Shah Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. The hosts only need one win to seal the series and they will be hoping to win the fourth Test in Ranchi and win the series. However, England needs to win the fourth Test as they are in a do-or-die situation and a defeat will end Ben Stokes’ unbeaten run in bilateral Test series as a captain.

“You can’t just fall back on the old ‘this is the way we play’ mantra because Test cricket is all about adapting to conditions – especially in India, where the nature of the pitch can change almost overnight during the course of a five-day Test. If you get in, you need to make it count. Look at the first three Tests: England won the first after Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 before India hit back with successive double-centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and 131 from Rohit Sharma,” Nasser Hussain wrote in his column for DailyMail.

Nasser Hussain reminds England of the Ashes

Nasser Hussain cited England’s use of the short-ball technique during the Ashes 2023 as an example of how they recovered in the series after falling behind 0-2 at their home. Despite this, they drew the series level 2-2. The Rajkot defeat was the team’s sixth in 21 Tests since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took over as coach and captain in mid-2022.

“They’ve done it before. Think back to the Ashes, where they became better at playing the short ball after that hook-happy collapse at Lord’s. Bazball, as they keep telling us, is about smart cricket, not headless cricket. They need to prove that point again now,” added Hussain.

England was the last team to defeat India at home in a Test series which was way back in 2012 when Sir Alastair Cook led the English side against India and won the series 2-1. Since then, India has won 16 consecutive Test series at home and they are hoping to continue their unbeaten run by winning the ongoing Test series against England which will be their 17th consecutive win at home in bilateral Test series.