Executing bazball

World Test Championship: With the five-Test series between India and England starting on January 25 in Hyderabad, former India left-arm fast-bowler Zaheer Khan said he is keen to see if the visitors’ stick to their attacking approach of playing, dubbed as ‘Bazball’, in the sub-continental conditions.

India have emerged victorious in 16 consecutive Test series at home ever since they lost 2-1 to England in 2012. “You don’t often see a five-Test series taking place these days. Bazball will remain in focus, and we’ll see whether England’s approach will remain the same. The kind of pitches that we’ll be playing on will also be another point of discussion for sure. But both teams will be eager to prove their supremacy,” said Zaheer to JioCinema.

Pragyan Ojha, the former India left-arm spinner, believes the Bazball approach can’t work in India as its tough to implement it against a quality Indian spin line-up. “Bazball involves playing fearless cricket and England tries to gain a psychological edge using this strategy. Executing Bazball will be difficult in India because it won’t be easy to play the Indian spinners or for that matter Jasprit Bumrah and the other pace bowlers,” he said.