As England registered their 10th win in 11 Tests with a 267-run triumph against New Zealand in the pink ball Test last week, Marcus Trescothick, England’s batting coach, shed some light on the Bazball attacking methods of the coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
“There is a bit more method to the madness,” Trescothick told SENZ radio.“It’s not just about you know, ‘Let’s go gung-ho and just be ultra-aggressive.’
“The mantra is (to) try and point pressure on bowlers and try and find opportunities that we can move the game forward.”
Marcus Trescothick. (FILE)
England were in shambles before McCullum took over as coach last May, losing nine Tests in 2021 – the most of any team in history of Test cricket.
“It kind of started with Brendon coming in and sort of looking to evolve the approach of the team,” Trescothick said.
“And then you’ve got the skipper in Ben Stokes also looking to try and do things slightly differently to give the team a different angle and a different way of playing the game.
“I think encouraging them to be more aggressive and to be a bit more free, which then allows us as coaches to then follow through with that ethos and keep pushing the guys towards the danger if you like and keep pushing them to try and find different approaches, find a different way of playing this game.
“We had a period of time beforehand where it didn’t go so well but we needed to move the game forward so it’s kind of breeding itself now. The guys have had success doing it and they’re finding and looking at opportunities where they can go out and be a bit more aggressive and the proof has been in the pudding.
“We’ve won 10 out of 11 games on the bounce and it’s like, this is pretty good at what we’re trying to do.”
Ben Stokes has already said how he hopes that England’s attacking brand of cricket filters down to the county cricket.
“It’s great to see it filtering down from us up here at the top down the Lions and hopefully into county cricket as well … I feel like heading into the summer we’re in a position where we’ve got that. I think we’ve got a great crop of fast bowlers coming through England at the moment and it’s exciting.”