Sam Billings hits back at Dean Elgar for his Bazball comments

Billings has slowly started to cement his place in Test team

England Lions skipper Sam Billings has advised South Africa captain Dean Elgar that it would be "pretty stupid" to disrespect England's new batting approach in Test cricket.

Billings' comments came after England Lions' victory over South Africa in the four-day game. Prior to the start of the three-match series against England, the Proteas skipper said that committing to the 'Bazball' philosophy could leave England looking foolish in the long run.

Responding to Elgar's opinion on Bazball, Billings remarked that it would be 'pretty stupid' on the visiting side to overlook the approach. 

"We've (England Lions) beaten an international team over four days by an innings in a manner of scoring 5.74 an over. You'd be pretty stupid to ignore that, if I'm honest. If that's not a wake-up call... because we're not even the best XI. So, it's up to them, really, but I think that's laid out a pretty strong statement in the way we want the cricket to be played," Sam Billings was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

Billings hits back at the Proteas skipper

 Billings feels that players will take a lot of confidence from the win leading up to the first Test at Lord's. 

"This (Canterbury ground where the Lions-SA game was played) is a very similar ground to Lord's (where the first England-South Africa Test will be played) with the slope and things like that. There's a couple of guys who Ollie Robinson had on toast this week. He bowled exceptionally well. It's a similar kind of ground and a similar kind of feel. So the fact we got 20 wickets on a pretty flat pitch that had six heavy rollers on... What did we get? 672? It's impossible not to take confidence,"  added Billings.

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