We’re two weeks into the year of 2023! Definitely looking forward to how the rest of this year will end up and hope that it is a great one for all of us. Cricket Huddle is back again with State of Cricket, our premier podcast, and we have a special guest today with us! Cricket writer Sanjit Misra will be joining our regular crew of Rugwed, Nikhil, Amol, and Rohan, and he will be discussing his new book. Introducing myself as the writer of these summaries, I am Rupayan. Let’s get started on today’s topics of discussion: will Bazball work and yet be sustainable in this day and age? In addition, will the way Ben Stokes has gone about his business be sustainable as well?

A great point that was brought up early into these discussions was there is no middle ground with this tactic of Bazball. Either you immerse yourself fully into this form strategy or you go your merry way following what you’ve always done. As great as the results have been so far for England, this tactic is definitely not for everybody. This may be a very risky approach to playing cricket, but the reason for success has been Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum. However, just as good of a counterpoint is that England has yet to face any serious, top-tier Test opponents. Yes, they may have white-ball success with ODI and T20 World Cup wins, so they have that going for them at least. However, cricket’s popularity in England is still behind multiple sports, so nothing has changed in England despite the success.

It is a breath of fresh air reigniting interest in Test cricket again, and this aggressive, “belting the ball” approach has been something previously executed by West Indies of old (Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, and Viv Richards batting at 1-3). However, the conditions (flat tracks, Multan, Karachi) and type of bowling (favorable conditions of seam and swing, mystery spinners) have to also be considered to further look at how this English success was able to occur. As for Stokes, his documentary (Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes) is a very interesting one to get an all-access look into his life and cricket journey. At the same time, his brand of captaincy is enjoyable, inventive, and still serious enough. 

I think it is a great approach to Test cricket, as in playing it almost like one would play white-ball cricket, and versions of it could be encouraged by other nations. This aggressive brand of play is just a product of forward-thinking in an age of innovation, and I am all for it given that my ideal style of play is focused on a fast-paced approach. Stokes is very on-brand in terms of innovation and, as Andy Bull said, his success is something for other cricket (and other sports) captains to follow. Among other topics of discussion were: the bowling failures of players brought in to play a dual bat-and-ball role, Prithvi Shaw’s background/upbringing, the off-the-field power/success of “The Big Three” cricketing nations, and more. Lastly, we got to find out more about the subject of Sanjit’s book, The Inscrutable Master, Hugh Tayfield. The inspiration for the book came about during quarantine times and Sanjit wanted to find out more about a South African spinner who picked apart one of the best teams in the world at the time, Australia.

*Disclaimer #1: While it was mentioned in the podcast that a typically non-cricket-playing nation like Singapore might find it hard to grasp the concept of the sport, that’s not to say that they haven’t had success despite this. They’re currently ranked 30th in the world (best ranking: 19th) and have seen the likes of Chetan Suryawanshi and Amjad Mahboob play alongside local talents like Tim David (now of Australia) and Janak Prakash. They have also won the World Cricket League for Associate nations two separate times (2009 Division Six, 2012 Division Five).*

*Disclaimer #2: While the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the most famous basketball league in the world, the EuroLeague (as a whole tournament) can rival the NBA talent-wise, skill-wise (current European-based NBA stars have called it harder), and in viewership ratings.*

If you are interested in the rest of the conversation, please check out the links below: