India have admitted they can "learn a thing or two" from England's 'Bazball' success, with stand-in captain KL Rahul revealing they will look to play "a lot of aggressive cricket" in their upcoming series against Bangladesh.
Rahul praised the "fearless and aggressive" mindset England have adopted under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, which has been termed 'Bazball' in reference to the coach's nickname. Since Stokes and McCullum have taken charge, England have won eight out of nine Tests and recently sealed a historic away series win against Pakistan.
Speaking ahead of India's first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong, Rahul, who is captaining the side with regular skipper Rohit Sharma injured, was asked about England's recent success in Pakistan. "To watch I think it's really, really exciting," he said.
"I have been watching the games and it's really exciting and I'm really enjoying watching Test cricket being played like that - very fearless and aggressive and taking the game on. That's worked for them.
"Each team has their own way. We can obviously learn a thing or two from teams that are doing well and how they've performed and what is working well.
"I don't think it's reckless cricket. They have a certain mindset. They have thought about it and they back their players and the players are really doing the job for the team. That's what matters.
"Cricket's evolving, cricket's changing and there's no set way of how this game needs to be played. It's up to the players in the middle to assess what they feel is the best thing to do for their team and you as players and leaders back that."
And while he insisted India would not look to adopt the exact same mindset as England, Rahul did vow to play "a lot of aggressive cricket" against Bangladesh. "We won't go in with any set mindset," he added.
"There is a history of a certain venue. You look at the numbers and you take certain pointers from that. Every session, the demand of the team will be different, so we will assess that. One thing is for sure - you are going to see a lot of aggressive cricket from our side."
