'Bazball' uncovered - the secrets behind England's daring new philosophy

“Tradition can be a wonderful friend but a dangerous enemy,” Joe Mercer, the former England football manager once observed. So has been England’s mantra throughout their Test series against New Zealand. 

It is too early to say that England are changing Test cricket – but not too soon to say that they are at least trying to do so.

At Headingley, Jonny Bairstow was asked about his remarkable turnaround in form. There are many reasons: the end of biosecure bubbles, clarity over his role and the work he has done on his Test technique. But another, as Bairstow noted, is the pitches.

“You’ve got to look at the pitches we’ve played on in the last three-and-a-half years in England,” he said. “Playing with the Dukes ball and things that are swinging and everything like that. It’s like lemons and oranges, they don't taste the same.”

Even amid their struggles away from home, England were undefeated in home Test series from 2015-20. In this period, the ball both swung and seamed more in England than any other nation. No wonder that batting averages plummeted – or, when one-day openers like Alex Hales and Jason Roy opened in Tests, they floundered. “With the red ball in England there’s no hiding place – it swings, it seams, it’s really difficult, so I found it’s a completely different game,” Hales reflected.

But so far this summer both the pitches and the ball – which has gone notably soft – have encouraged batsmen to play with similar adventure to in limited-overs cricket. In the last 18 years in Test cricket in England, in no summer has the ball moved less – in the air and then off the seam – for quick bowlers than in 2022. If England are playing a different game, it is partly because the pitches are encouraging them to do so.

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