Bazball v Samball will ignite the Ashes
Battle plans are being drawn and while England assemble a phalanx of fast bowlers, it’s clear Australia is prepared to meet their rival’s dynamism head-on.
Sam Konstas captured the imagination of the Australian public in the space of 65 deliveries on Boxing Day. It’s safe to say he caught the attention of the English as well. Maybe to the same extent. You just knew he would. Even if he didn’t quite win them over like he did his own people.
Konstas, with his unhinged assault on Jasprit Bumrah, was after all treading a path that England have copyrighted in the past few years. You know that tactic of being ultra-aggressive with the bat while throwing caution to the wind like it’s been never done before? Yeah, that one.
OK, fine. Maybe it’s a bit too early in the year to be facetious or to draw the ire of the hardcore English cricket fans. But it was difficult not to peek into the social media world to see how they were reacting to what Konstas did to Bumrah.
“Sounds like something of an epiphany occurred at the MCG today,” from my good friend and ace journalist Ali Martin on X summed it up for me. Even while in the ABC box, the legendary Jim Maxwell declared on air, “Forget Bazball, it’s Sam ball, it’s Konstas ball.” It almost felt surprising that not any of the English cricketers had anything to say about the 19-year-old’s audacious approach to Test batting. Even Ben Duckett, who’s currently in the country playing in the BBL, and has generally been quite vocal about the impact his team’s style of Test cricket has had on other players around the world.
Just the chatter about Konstas in the English press, though, felt like the official kick-off to the Ashes buzz – a year out from when Bazball officially arrives on Australian soil.
It’ll be exciting. It’ll be rapid. It’ll be a “ball” all right, whatever name you want to associate with it.
From an English perspective, next summer is what they’ve planned for, the foundations they have laid for a rebuild since leaving Australia with their tails between their legs after one of the more disastrous Ashes campaigns on these shores this century. From that point on, it’s felt like the sole focus for coach Brendon McCullum and his motley crew has been to design a formula to give themselves the best chance of beating Australia on their hard, bouncy wickets.
World Test Championships? We don’t care, it’s too difficult to comprehend. Ben Stokes not scoring a lot of runs? That’s fine. Wait till he gets to Australia. Jofra Archer hasn’t played Test cricket for four years? So what, he’ll be fit for Australia. Lost a series to Pakistan after having mauled them in the opening Test? Wait till we get to Australia next year.
There is a big five-match series at home against India for England before they head here in November. But you can imagine the Ashes discussions will be well under way by then, even if it does annoy the Indians. And for all the talk about Duckett and the other freewheeling batters, alongside the class of Joe Root and the prodigious talent of Harry Brook, it’s their pace attack that looks even more promising.
In Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue they seem to have found the kind of hardy and skilful fast bowlers who should be suited to Australian pitches, particularly the types we’ve seen rolled out against India. To complement, of course, the remarkable Mark Wood and hopefully the returning Archer. It could actually be a fair fight this time around.
Unlike the 2023 Ashes on English soil, though, where it did feel at times like the two teams were playing two different versions of Test cricket, there promises to be a bit more of a fighting fire-with-fire approach from the Aussie camp.
The quest for some dynamism at the top to combat Bumrah is what had led to the inclusion of Konstas in the first place. What Australia got was a bit more than what even they’d bargained for. The young New South Welshman will be a year older and probably even keener to make an impression on the English. Travis Head, whose Test career was transformed during the last Ashes at home, will be ready to throw his own punches to combat Bazball head-on.
Scott Boland, whose life was transformed during the last Ashes at home, will be eager to get his own back against Brook & Co after they took to him in England and ruined his incredible bowling average, if only briefly.
The likes of Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Usman Khawaja, meanwhile, will want to finish their final battles on home soil against the old enemy on a high. Pat Cummins will want to be the first Australian captain to win back-to-back Ashes series in Australia in the 21st century.
The Test squad for Sri Lanka has some new names who might in 10 months’ time be adept at beating the Bazballers at their own game. Cooper Connolly, who’s currently dominating the BBL, is certainly one of them. And with Cameron Green set to return by the middle of the year, there will be a younger look to the Aussie team than what we saw leading into this summer.
I’ve spent most of this summer talking up the Australia v India Test rivalry as being the foremost of this generation. The rivalry of the present and the future while with the Ashes it’s generally been about looking back at history and celebrating its traditions. And it’s largely been due to the mostly lacklustre quality of competition we’ve seen between the two teams, especially on Australian soil, even in 2010-11 when England actually won the Ashes, and did so convincingly. It just so happens to be the last time they managed to win a Test on these shores.
It’ll take quite something to match up to the drama generated through the course of this recently concluded Border Gavaskar Trophy. Along with the atmosphere around the grounds. Each venue, especially the iconic MCG and SCG, now having set new records for crowd numbers.
But with 40,000 English fans, including the Barmy Army, expected to land in Australia, those records may be under threat.
Whatever you make of them, the Bazballers will bring massive crowds to the cricket. Just like Konstas did.
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