Ian Botham savages England’s ‘Bazball’ plan, calls for batsmen to be ‘more selective’

England legend Ian Botham has savaged the approach Ben Stokes’ side took in their disastrous first Test Ashes loss and bluntly told them their Bazball revolution is “nothing new”.

England legend Ian Botham has slammed the “dumb cricket” which led to Australia taking a 1-0 series lead in the Ashes and called on England to “walk the walk” after talking the talk.

Botham said the tourists need to play smarter cricket after the calamity at Perth which saw England cruising with a 105-run lead only one wicket down in the third inning before collapsing and suffering a stunning defeat at the hands of Travis Head.

“I’ve seen some dumb bowling in my time,” he said.

“Australia for an hour lost it and we got 200 runs ahead which we shouldn’t have done and then we thought ‘oh we’ll do the same, we’ll bowl short’.

“Travis Head said ‘thank you very much’. But pretty dumb cricket to be honest.

“When you bowl so well in the first innings, you’re disappointed.”

The former England captain was hopeful the visitors would learn from the lessons of the first Test but did fear a 2-0 deficit was on the way with the next Test a day-nighter at the Gabba a venue England has now won at since 1986.

“They need to pull their socks up, get stuck in and be a bit more selective,” Botham said.

“Then we’ll see what happens but you can’t afford to go 2-0 down and England are not renowned for the evening day/night games so it’s going to be tough.

Harry Brook reacts after a disappointing dismissal on day two in Perth.

“They need to come out and think about what they’re doing.

“It was very disappointing what happened in the first Test.

“With all the hype and everything, the players don’t look match fit so that’s something they can address.

“We can only see what we saw and that’s bowlers suddenly six to 10 miles an hour slower than they were in the first innings and they only bowled a few overs.

“They need to stop talking the talk and it’s now time to walk the walk.”

Despite the poor outing, Botham believed the Bazball approach under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes has done more good than bad but called on the tourists to be more adaptable in their approach.

“Bazball is nothing new, England in the 70s, 80s, have a look at the West Indies in the 70s and 80s, we didn’t call it any fancy name - it was just the way we played,” he said.

“I would like to see them go out there and get themselves in.

“You can’t drive every ball on the up outside of off stump over here because you’re gonna nick it as we saw.

“They’ve produced a lot of good stuff, they need to get that going again.

“I’m fed up with hearing ‘that’s the way we play’.”

Joe Root grimaces after being dismissed in Perth.

Botham was one of several sporting legends on the Gold Coast on Friday taking part in the Warne-Symonds Invitational golf day to raise money for Rural Aid, the Queensland Cricket Foundation and the Shane Warne Legacy.

“I go all the way back with Warney for many, many years,” he said.

“At the end of the day they’re both in their own ways irreplaceable.

“They’re great people, they loved life so to come along here as an ex-Queensland player it was an absolute pleasure and we’ve got great weather.”

Originally published as Ian Botham savages England’s ‘Bazball’ plan, calls for batsmen to be ‘more selective’