Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
England cricket team have often been complimented for their ‘Bazball’ style of cricket, which seems to be inspired by their head coach Brendon McCullum. As much as this brand of cricket has fascinated fans, some even consider it to be risky and careless at the same time.
Recently, Australian batter Travis Head went on to compliment the way in which the England skipper Ben Stokes and head coach McCullum have gone about, playing such a brand of cricket. The southpaw also acknowledged this approach to be fresh and new.
“I like it, I think the way they’re going about it is exciting. It’s new and it’s fresh, and they’re coming up with a style that’s true to them and true to ‘Baz’ (McCullum) and Stokes,” Head said to cricket.com.au.
The Australian middle-order batter, who himself likes scoring runs at a good pace liked how the duo have been leading the England side effectively in the longest format of the game and even producing results by this approach. The 29-year-old himself had been in his prime form lately and had been scoring runs at a brisk pace.
The last time around when these two sides met in the Ashes, Travis was the leading run-scorer with 357 runs in six innings that he played with an impressive strike rate of 86.02. It is also to be noted that since 2021, the left-hand batter is among the top five batters with the highest strike rate in Test cricket.
The prolific left-hand batter also mentioned an amusing conversation with Marnus Labuschagne about the Tassie Test wherein he batted at an astonishing strike rate which helped put Australia in a commanding situation.
“Marnus (Labuschagne) laughed it off that game saying that it was slogging and we were going a million miles an hour, so I joke with him and say ‘you were, but I was very calm and kept the ball really close and actually played really, really nice cricket shots, If I’m 180 off 80, or 80 off 80, it can look exactly the same for me,” Head further said to cricket.com.au.
The Adelaide-born batter will be one of the key assets for the Australian side with the World Test Championship Final set to be played from June 7, followed by the Ashes series which will commence on June 16.
