Ashes 2023: Australia’s Bazball initiation shouldn’t come as a shock, it was all on brand for England

England’s batting has morphed from a tired 1960s bungalow into a 21st century triple-story monstrosity. Forget everything you knew about the era BB: ‘Before Bazball’ – this is the new normal.

Aussie bowlers were introduced to the new normal of Bazball. Picture: AFP Images

You’ve probably tried to put them out of your mind, but remember back to those weeks of March, 2020.

Masks, elbow greetings, social distancing, lockdowns, viral loads. Many largely foreign concepts became mainstays of the lexicon. It gave rise to that lamentable term: the new normal.

Friday at Edgbaston was Test cricket’s day of the new normal.

For a series ahead of which the range of foreseeable outcomes quite reasonably stretched to 5-0 in either extreme, the Ashes’ Bazball initiation went pretty much to script.

While England’s bowling has changed marginally since Brendon McCullum took over, it is the batting where a tired 1960s bungalow was knocked over for a 21st century triple-story monstrosity in which the doors open with blinking sensors.

And 13 months into the McCullum era, England has shifted the batting paradigm in Test cricket so far that nothing should really come as a shock.

Joe Root blasted his way to a day one Ashes century. Picture: Getty Images

Just about everything that happened on day one in Birmingham fell within the expected range of Bazball.

England’s batters played aggressively. They took risks. With the exception of Ben Stokes, they all survived at least 10 balls. With the exception of Joe Root, none of them made it to survive 100 deliveries.

They lived by the sword, scoring at a rate pretty much on par with how England has made its runs since McCullum took over.

Ben Duckett, who as a rule doesn’t leave, played at a ball he certainly didn’t have to and nicked Josh Hazlewood inside the first four overs, ending a nice looking 12.

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali were both stumped by Alex Carey trying to dance down the wicket to Nathan Lyon. Stuart Broad was clean bowled by Cameron Green trying to slog.

This is all Bazball.

In between times, England cross-bat manifesto gave Australia’s outfielders an almighty workout. From the outset the Aussies had sweepers. Pat Cummins didn’t even bring the field in when Joe Root was on 99.

Zak Crawley and Harry Brook both lived dangerously but productively. Root reverse scooped Scott Boland for six. It was such a nice trick he did it again to Cummins.

Stokes declared with his best batter on 118 not out and with more than four days left in the match. It was the earliest a team has ever declared in an Ashes Test. It would have seemed crazy little over a year ago but it was the fourth time England has declared its first innings closed inside 90 overs in the Bazball era.

So here’s the great irony of it all. The style of play that has revolutionised Test cricket and breathed life into the English game has become formulaic. When the hosts were milking singles at various stages over the first two sessions the game felt a lot like a one-day international.

This must have been a bit like what it was like at the early one-day World Cups in England. Whites, no fielding restrictions, and being really impressed by teams scoring at more than 4.5 an over.

Australian paceman Hazlewood said he hadn’t been shocked at the declaration. Or at anything England dished up.

“The first day was probably as I expected pretty much,” he said.

Similarly Bairstow has learned to accept the eccentric.

“I’m sure there’s many decisions that Ben has made that has probably taken commentators and some people by surprise. So it was no surprise to us,” Bairstow said.

Scott Boland celebrates a wicket amid the scoring blitz on day one. Picture: Getty Images

“A 20-minute slot for any opening pair is something that’s not very nice, and can be a bit niggly.”

There were perhaps just a couple of surprises. One was that England decided to bat first after winning the toss. And even then, the choice was only made after Stokes was presented with the type of flat wicket he had asked for months in advance.

The other surprise was Root. Not that he batted well, because he’s been doing it for more than a decade. Not that he made a Test century, because this was his 30th. Not that he anchored the innings of a freewheeling side, because he’s done that in one-day cricket and it helped take England to a world title.

But that he did so in the Ashes, ending a run of 12 straight Test fifties against Australia that he had failed to convert into three figures.

They were all in the era BB: Before Baz.

It was a time of cluttered minds, fear of failure, captaincy burden. That was the old England, the old Root. It is a distant memory.