Brendon McCullum’s England face South Africa in a three-match Test series
(Picture: PA)There was a moment of levity as the dictaphones and cameras were arranged before South Africa head coach Mark Boucher’s pre-Test press conference.
“If you mention ‘Bazball’ you have to have a tequila,” laughed the former wicketkeeper, before adding “I’ll bring the bottle”.
It worked, with journalists euphemistically asking questions about “England’s new style”; but it also added to the sense that the clamour around said style has wound up opposition teams, not least South Africa.
Senior players Dean Elgar and Anrich Nortje have given irritable interviews on the matter in recent weeks. And they might not like England’s style because they got a taste of it first hand last week when the Lions flayed them around Canterbury.
Asked what South Africa had got out of the game, Boucher joked: “We learned how to fetch the ball”. The Lions scored 672 at 5.74 an over to win by an innings.
England, to be fair, have spent the time since their last Test, against India at the start of last month, looking to distance themselves from ‘Bazball’. The man from whose nickname it takes, Brendon McCullum, does not like it much, believing it undersells and aggrandises his team’s approach. It might also be because it was coined by a journalist, not the England camp itself.
Those few weeks since the last Test have been fraught in a deeply divided game. England’s white-ball team had a poor month, and were unable to paper over disputes about the domestic schedule and the game’s futures. There have been a few landmark moments — Trent Boult leaving his New Zealand contract, Ben Stokes retiring from ODIs, the launch of leagues in South Africa and the UAE — that have reminded us of cricket’s direction of travel.
Jimmy Anderson, on the eve of his first Test in his forties, became the latest to voice concern over the future of Tests yesterday.
The return of Test cricket, played by a team looking to make it sexy, brings succour. In those four heady wins this summer, England were as good as their aim. But they do not claim it will work every time, or that they will not have to adapt to conditions. New Zealand were compliant, then India got sucked in by their style.
South Africa, who are top of the World Test Championship and resurgent under Elgar and Boucher, will have taken note. They might have fewer stars these days but they have depth and a tasty bowling attack that will test England’s aggressive intent.
Three South Africa stars to watch in England series
The old stager - Dean Elgar
Captain Elgar is the oldest (35) and most capped (76) player in his squad, and a player very familiar to England, whether with South Africa, Surrey or Somerset. Nuggety style at the top of the order has brought Elgar an average of 40, and he is proving an excellent leader, too: they are yet to lose a series under him, and top the World Test Championship.
The familiar face - Anrich Nortje
Nortje has played just 12 Tests, and none for 14 months, but four of them came against England in 2019/20, when he was excellent. Since, he has only enhanced his reputation as one of the world’s quickest bowlers in all formats. Shortish, smooth and slippery, he will keep up the threat with the old ball. In the tradition of South African pace bowling, brings some snarl, too.
A new challenge - Marco Jansen
An extremely alluring talent in any era, but perhaps most of all now. Jansen is 22, 6ft 8in, bowls left-arm pace and is a handy batter too. Signed by Mumbai Indians as an uncapped 20-year-old and is now excelling in the longest form of the game, with 28 wickets in his first five Tests. May be asked to balance the side batting at No7 and in a five-man attack.
They know that for England, there has been some luck (beyond the obvious, like injuries to New Zealand bowlers mid-match, and Colin de Grandhomme’s no-ball). The new attitude has come along at the same time as the loosening of Covid restrictions, which did players’ heads in.
The Dukes ball this summer has been lifeless, and it will be interesting to see if they improve this week, as the manufacturers and England’s bowlers expect them to. It will be interesting, too, to see how England go if they have to bat first. So far, they have been expert chasers.
The key tenets of England’s rise have been as much about life off the field as the tactics on it: constant backing of players (the only change to the XI tomorrow will be Ben Foakes’ return from Covid for Sam Billings), and shorter, less prescriptive training sessions. That is in keeping with a more relaxed approach across the board, which have the players bursting to get back into camp, which is quite something when the wider schedule is as rammed as it is.
If Stokes and McCullum are the guiding hands, then Jonny Bairstow is the poster boy of this transformation. Bairstow played in this fixture a decade ago, Andrew Strauss’s final Test. Picked because of Kevin Pietersen messaged the South Africans about Strauss’s weaknesses, Bairstow provided notice of his rich promise. He made a steady 95, a maiden fifty, in the first innings, and a brisk 54 in the second.
That was his fourth Test, this will be his 88th. The time in between has been up and down, in and out of the side. Now, though, he is as comfortable, confident and crucial to England’s hopes as he has ever been. He has four extraordinary centuries in his past three Tests, and six this year.
Bairstow’s mind, like that of his team-mates, has been uncluttered by the clarity of England’s approach to the most mentally taxing sport, and he is coming good on his potential. That, more than any increasingly hackneyed name for a tactic, is what should worry South Africa.
