The Ashes are back in action, with the England cricket team heading out to Brisbane to face their old Australian rivals in the second of up to five tense test matches.
While the series is a tradition that has been in place since 1877, the element of ‘Bazball’ is enthusing and confounding fans once again, not necessarily for the better.
Evident by the fact that England collapsed and lost the first test in Perth in two days, being bowled out for 172, a terrible result but entertaining to watch with 19 wickets taken on the first day.
England were beaten at their own game by Aussie stalwart Travis Head, who scored a memorable test century in just 69 balls, the second fastest Ashes century ever as Australia won by 8 wickets.
Dreamt up by England Captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendan McCullum, Bazball relates to an extremely aggressive and entertaining style of play that focuses on fast run scoring and big hitting, rather than consistent defensive play.
Players are encouraged to take reckless and attacking shots, like the nature of baseball, to win quick and keep people on the edge of their seats.
It’s a far cry from more traditional styles of cricket, with a typical test match lasting up to a staggering five days, encouraging batsmen to be cautious.
The revolutionary style of play may come as an attempt to try and encourage younger audiences to become more engaged in cricket, testing crickets time-honoured essence.
Similar is ‘The Hundred,’ another attempt to attract young people to the game, a frantic and fast paced version of cricket, in which there are only 100 balls per innings
The Hundred drew in 2.2 million online viewers last edition, a 38% increase from 2024, there is hope Bazball will do the same.
According to the 2025 EY sports engagement index, that tracks how popular a sport is, cricket doesn’t rank in the top 15 sports for Gen Z engagement.
Andrew Forbes, former amateur player, stated to The River that “perhaps more than any other sport, Cricket has entered the age of commercialism, it now must suit a new audience.”
“The Test match form has defied alteration until now, until Bazball,” he added.
While it’s working in getting more people watching (the viewing figures in Australia showed it reached over 1 million people on Freeview TV, a 60% increase from their previous test match), on the pitch, Bazball has been a disaster for the England team so far, McCullum however, stood firm in the press conference, saying: “We won’t be changing our blueprint.”
England will now look to bounce back at The Gabbatoir, a place they haven’t won at since 1986. The BBC called it the: “biggest test of the Bazball era.”
