England vs India at Edgbaston: Ben Stokes’ side return to where Bazball was born with Ben Duckett the heartbeat

When was Bazball born?

When Jonny Bairstow went berserk after tea against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in June 2022 as his 136 from 92 deliveries helped England chase 299 in precisely 50 overs?

Perhaps.

What about when he clattered 71 not out from 44 balls two weeks later at Headingley as the hosts successfully knocked off a target of 296 in 54.2 overs to clinch a 3-0 sweep?

Possibly.

But it was arguably the stunning win over India at Edgbaston the following month that propelled Bazball – a vibrant and aggressive style of play named after new England head coach Brendon McCullum – into the common cricketing vernacular and beyond.

This was that word at its best.

England’s requirement was a national-record 378 against an India attack containing Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja. Yeah, good luck, lads…

But what happened next was staggering. Ben Stokes’ side not only reached that steep target, they cantered to it – in under 77 overs, and with Bairstow once again a key man.

Bairstow shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 269 from 316 balls with fellow Yorkshireman, and fellow centurion, Joe Root as England pulled off something special.

It was a masterclass. Concrete proof that, when applied properly, Bazball works. Positive in attack but also in defence. Putting pressure on but also absorbing it.

We mention this match because England are about to face India at Edgbaston again, exactly three years after that halcyon chase at the venue and just over a week after they completed another fourth-innings heist against the same side, this time in Leeds.

Duckett assumes Bairstow role as Mr Bazball

Bairstow was Bazball’s spirit animal in the ideology’s opening summer, looting 681 runs at an average of 75.66 with a strike-rate of 96.59, before suffering a horrific leg break that his Test career, which now appears over, never truly recovered from.

But now that role appears to have been assumed by Ben Duckett, whose superb 149 underpinned England’s largely routine chase of 371 – their second-highest in Tests – versus India at Headingley.

His innings featured more sweeps than a game of curling, with the reverse a particularly profitable shot.

Duckett was not around for that Edgbaston chase in 2022, still amid a six-year absence from the Test XI after being dropped in 2016 following a chastening few games in India when Ravichandran Ashwin had him on toast and he made 18 runs across three innings.

His most significant impact on England’s Test team in that span was pouring a pint of beer over James Anderson’s head on a night out during the failed Ashes tour of 2017/18, a misdemeanour which led to him being fined and suspended from England Lions action.

But Duckett was then namechecked by Rob Key in the England MD’s first media activity since taking on the job in April 2022, floated as someone who could help propel the side out of the funk they found themselves in – the team had won just one of their previous 17 Tests before the Key-Stokes-McCullum axis took hold and shook things up.

Duckett duly returned to the Test arena in Pakistan in October of that year, pinching Alex Lees’ place as Zak Crawley’s opening partner and quickly proving to be an upgrade.

He began his second tenure in England whites with 107 from 110 balls as the tourists plundered 500 on day one in Rawalpindi and has not looked back. Very often sweeping, but also cutting, pulling and driving, his way to a sustained spell of success.

‘Bazball with brains’ as Duckett downs India

Ben Duckett 2.0 averages 47.37 from 30 Tests, scoring over 2,500 runs with six centuries. His Test average as an opener (44.98) exceeds that of Sir Alastair Cook (44.86), albeit that Cook played a truckload more matches than his fellow left-hander currently has.

The 30-year-old’s strike-rate since his 2022 comeback (88) has led to David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd calling him England’s Virender Sehwag – the former India star who is often viewed as the most destructive opener the Test game has seen. Sehwag’s strike-rate was 82.

New India superstar Yashasvi Jaiswal is the only opener above Duckett in the updated ICC Test batting rankings and you could make a strong argument that the England man is currently the best all-format batter in the world. He is certainly Bazball’s heartbeat.

Duckett has been there for the best and worst of that B word.

Guilty of daft shots and even dafter words at times but also around for hedonistic highs. The most recent of which, in Leeds, was secured by playing, as ex-England captain Michael Vaughan put it, ‘Bazball with brains’ – which is just what Bairstow did at Edgbaston in 2022.

Back then, after England had lost three wickets for two runs either side of tea, Bairstow and Root curbed their attacking instincts to take the sting out of a buoyant India before pushing on again.

Duckett and Crawley were equally cerebral at Headingley this year.

Beginning day five on 21-0, England progressed to 117-0 at lunch, scoring at a steady, not swashbuckling, rate of four an over as they saw off their biggest threat, Bumrah, as well as Mohammed Siraj before picking off boundaries against the other bowlers.

As England tucked into their sandwiches, they knew they had broken the back of the chase and it was eventually ended in style in the third session by Jamie Smith’s six. The only shame perhaps was that the architect of the win, Duckett, was not there at the end.

At whichever stage in 2022 you consider Bazball to have been born, what is clear is that its legacy will be framed on what happens over the next seven months – this five-match contest at home to India and then the same number of Ashes Tests in Australia.

Edgbaston three years ago and Headingley a week ago serve as perfect templates.

Watch the second Test between England and India, at Edgbaston, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10am on Wednesday (11am first ball) or stream without a contract.