Knight watchman Sir Alastair Cook is tipping England's 'Bazball' bazookas to rattle the Aussies this summer – because they keep finding a way to confound the critics.
Twenty years and 73 hundreds after making his first-class debut, Ashes legend Cook will pad up at Lord's for a new county season with Essex on Thursday tipping Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum to turn England's wild things into the Urnvincibles.
As a four-times Ashes winner, the former St Paul's Cathedral choirboy knows how to make Australia sing for their supper. Now 38, but impossibly looking no older than the 21-year-old who answered England's SOS by flying halfway round the world to score a century on his Test debut in India, Cook held court at his Chelmsford fortress and said: “Can Bazball work this summer? Absolutely, I think they can win.
“Every side who’s come across England have said, ‘Ah, they won’t do it against our bowlers, they won’t do it in these conditions’ - and they have done it. So just because it’s the Ashes, and we are going up against a very good bowling attack, doesn’t mean they can’t do it.
“It’s just like they did against that India attack or Pakistan attack – they are going to play that way, and actually it’s very confrontational as an opposition captain because if they do it well and do it at the right times, you don’t know when it’s coming. That’s the great thing about it – it’s not every ball, hacking at it or whatever. It’s just at certain times they take that initiative.
“If you are skilful enough and good enough at that level, and clear enough in your mind to do it at the right time, it’s a very tough thing to captain against because suddenly, in half an hour or 40 minutes of a Jonny Bairstow burst like we saw at Trent Bridge (against New Zealand), the momentum has shifted. That’s what is so powerful about this way of playing. Talking about it is very different to doing it, but they have delivered so far.”
Even in defeat by a single run against the Kiwis, 'Bazball' has transformed Test cricket from chessboard attrition to a swingers' party: England's opponents know what's coming, but they are not sure where it's coming from next.
Cook, who stockpiled 766 runs in the 2010-11Ashes series Down Under, said: “I think it’s been a brilliant winter for Test cricket and that last game in Wellington summed it up.
“The way Ben has got his team playing, to win those three games in Pakistan was an extraordinary effort," he said. How many sides have won three in Pakistan? Even the great sides when you go back in history? (Answer: Never – Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 in 2002 but the series was played on neutral soil in Sri Lanka and the UAE).
“So to do what they did, in the manner they did it, was extraordinary. The batting was the highlight but the bowling, but it’s hard to take 20 wickets away in all other conditions, and last winter Ben has done an outstanding job. It’s been great to watch. I remember some of the things I said – will the way they play work in certain conditions? And they keep proving us wrong.
“I compare it to the one-day stuff, where England are trying to get 500 in a one-day game. That’s all well and good, but look at the players trying to do it – Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler. That’s a serious pool of talent trying to do it, so Bazball works with this group of players really well and it’s freed up a lot of them.
“But I’ve also been impressed with the way they’ve adapted at certain times. It hasn’t always been a positive approach - they have also sucked up pressure and played situations well.”
Cook may have accumulated 12,472 Test runs with the efficiency of a vacuum cleaner, but he was not immune to the ways of the long handle. He once hit a 57-ball century for Essex, but he observed: “With Bazball, I don’t actually think they mind how you play - it’s the results they want.
“But for that batting line-up, it's given them clarity: If there’s ever any doubt we want you to take the positive option. I still think there’s a place in that England side for consistency at the top of the order - players who don’t score quite as quickly but if they guarantee the side better results more often than not.”
Cook is unimpressed that Aussie run machine Steve Smith has been given a short-term contract by Sussex in the build-up to the Ashes – transparent espionage which is never reciprocated if England batsmen are looking to warm up for a series in Australia.
But the man who played 161 Tests, 59 of them as captain, shrugged: “It’s tough isn’t it? Steve Smith’s going to score runs no matter what really, isn’t he? You would say a bloke averaging 50 and has a good record in England is going to come good at some stage. saw Paul Farbrace, director of cricket at Sussex, saying it’s great for the county game and great for these bowlers to face Steve Smith. I’m sure that’s fairly one-eyed as he’s got him to hopefully score runs for his team.
'But if you score a couple of hundreds leading up to the Ashes, how much relevance does that actually have? You still start on nought on day one at Edgbaston in a couple of months.”
