South Africa batter Rassie van der Dussen has claimed that England's new positive and aggressive style of Test cricket, which has been dubbed 'Bazball', "didn't really work" against them even though Ben Stokes' side won the series 2-1.
South Africa derailed England in the first Test at Lord's back in August, bowling them out for 165 and 149 as they thrashed them by an innings and twelve runs. However, England hit back in the second Test, winning by an innings and 85 runs and then claimed a nine wicket victory in the final Test to seal a series win.
That defeat at Lord's remains the only Test England have lost since Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over and, following their thrilling victory over Pakistan in Rawalpindi, Van der Dussen has questioned England's ultra-positive approach.
"If there's ever a place to play like that it's probably Pakistan," Van der Dussen said. "And then you are going to follow up with a question of why didn't we play like that when we were there.
"But if you look at the English side, they have been very vocal in terms of they are going to back their guys, even through a few failures.
"They are out of the World Test Championship for this run so it's almost a nothing-to-lose type of game that they can play.
"To an extent, they tried it against us and it didn't really work, even though we lost the series at the end. That's an approach that can work if the conditions are really docile like it was in Pakistan.
"As soon as the bowlers are a bit more into it, like we saw at Lord's, it's a very fine line between going out and playing aggressively and then getting out, as opposed to being more disciplined.
"People like seeing that - a lot of shots and a lot of runs - but the purist and the real Test fan likes it when the balance is even between bat and ball and the bowlers are in the game as much as the batters."
