Jos Buttler has been England's best batter thus far. [Source: @englandcricket/X]
132. 165/9. 171/9. Even though England have progressed as a batting unit with every passing innings during the ongoing tour of India, the start to Brendon McCullum’s tenure as their white-ball head coach is at odds with the red-ball role.
McCullum, whose stint as Test coach had started with four earth-shattering wins in a row, is likely to kick-start his limited-overs promotion with three (or even more) successive losses. Not that defending a 172-run target in the third T20I is impossible but one expects India to attain an unassailable 3-0 lead at a batting paradise such as the Niranjan Shah Stadium.
Since this piece is about England’s batting approach, no one would like to repudiate the fact that England have neither batted according to their potential nor as per the expectations on this tour thus far. Other than the Indian spinners’ supremacy, their own debatable tactics pose a lot of questions.
Asian Conditions Are A Roadblock For England
As much as England wish to successfully execute an all-attack approach across formats, inability to conquer Asian conditions becomes an outright roadblock. Since both their Test series losses under McCullum have come in Asia, one expected them to land in India better prepared. In fact, much better prepared.
Barring opener Ben Duckett and captain Jos Buttler, no other English batter has given the impression of standing a chance against Indian spinners, particularly Varun Chakravarthy, till now. A self-inflicted trouble on the back of planting the front foot forward without reading the ball from the hand makes them look like cricketing noobs.
Bodies finding themselves in awkward positions with the mind hell-bent to attack calls for a deadly pairing. Mind you, “deadly” hear doesn’t mean what one usually associates with Bazball.
If truth be told, I’m a fan of Bazball. In my opinion, it has revolutionized Test cricket. For all its greatness, I don’t understand why it refuses to be a little flexible. Just a little. Assuming the novel concept creates some space for this clause, I see no reason why English batters can’t achieve greater heights in all formats under Brendon McCullum.
There is no hiding to the fact that if you’re already clueless, like the English batters are right now, you will never be able to learn how to counter Indian spinners in subcontinent conditions overnight. Having said that, what you can learn overnight is to respect the conditions and oppositions and target the right bowlers. Flexibility, you see.
And then, upon bettering your skill, just go for the kill. After all who can stop modern-day batters for going for the kill?