India vs England: Baz and the red-ball revolution

cricket would be played. Martin Crowe figured that the first 15 overs of the game against the new ball was the time to attack with the bat, a theory that stunned the cricket world and took the Kiwis to the semis, till they were stopped by Inzamam ul Haq. Cut to 2015 ODI World Cup and here was Brendon McCullum, nicknamed Baz, who was hell-bent on bringing about another change.

For the then captain of the New Zealand team, every ball was an opportunity to score and playing only for survival was not an option — the birth of Baz Ball as we call it today. New Zealand won a few matches that way, but when McCullum himself perished in the first over of the final, playing an attacking heave that led to a tame loss, one felt the best batsman in the team could have given himself a bit more time. But for the Kiwi, it was a philosophy and he was not ready to compromise.

He played all his cricket that way — his century in his last Test innings being the fastest in the history of the game — and when he became the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, it was this philosophy that he tried to bring in. And it worked in the second half of the 2021 season when KKR made the final in UAE after a terrible start in the India leg. KKR, though, lived and died by the philosophy, as from a position of comfort in the final against CSK with nine wickets in hand, they seemed to throw it away trying to go for shots every ball.