Bazball

Um, an- and other than that, you know, things are going to be very different.

The irony, I suppose, in, in that, n- the end of Bazball, um, is that England, over the course of the three test matches against Pakistan, scored at rates that were Bazball-esque, um, without actually taking any of the risks of that.

Which again, was more of a reflection on the quality of Pakistan's bowling than it was on England's attitude to tempo or anything like that.

So hard one to call.

Uh, most sections, to be honest.

But I kind of...

Do you know, I miss the, the era when Ben Duckett used to say, "The more, the better." Jaiswal, we taught him how to bat actually And I always, I always think that, that was the fun bit of Bazball, which-

We di- we, we didn't need any more news, to be honest, this summer, did we? I mean, that, that, we had ...

I've said this over and over again.

Do you even read any of my stuff or watch any of my videos? Tom Blundell did it during Bazball, the height of Bazball.

Alex Carey did it after Tom Blundell.

Tom Blundell started the trend.

They're successful in the Ashes.

Tom Blundell does it again versus England.

He kills Bazball.

Bazball is dead.

Um, I noticed that, uh, you know, some people are saying that he's just confused about which way he should play.

You know, the, the, the, the, the tapering off of Bazball means that he's kind of...

The technique that he, he's arrived at is, is-

Yeah

And I don't think this is the, um, representation of English cricket that we'll see next summer when the Ashes happen because having three-day tests when there's Ashes on the line is bad for business and bad for viewership, and they both are correlated.

Look, it's also a change in guard, right? So Bazball, their entire mantra was, "We're gonna have flat pitches, we're gonna score runs, we're gonna take wickets and win matches." So in order for Bazball to succeed, they needed flat pitches.

So in the past few seasons in England you've seen flat decks, right? Last year, India game, Shubman Gill scored tons of runs, like most runs by an Indian batsman touring England.

I just saw this, like for some reason it went through my algorithm and like, you know, Shubman Gill, Shubman Gill hitting 430 runs in a test match.

Yeah, yeah.

Or it's about me telling the, uh, the story of the English cricket team where, you know, their, their great hero Bazball turned out to be nothing but a bunch of nonsense in a fake way, and it didn't amount to anything.

Mm.

So it, it, it just, it's just challenging people, pushing boundaries-

England cricket was also in tatters, you know, after the, uh, drama, uh, in the New Zealand series.

Of course Bazball died, Ben Stokes retired in classic Ben Stokes fashion, making it all about himself.

And then now, you know, this series, uh, both teams were coming into it after having not performed too well.

Uh, eight and nine, I think, at the start of the series, or seven and eight.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Like I, I noticed what you said when you were asked in that press conference about the death of Bazball, so I get that.

But-

What did I say?