White-ball juggernaut England redefining test cricket too

NEW DELHI : England won the T20 World Cup in Australia to firmly establish themselves as the best white-ball team of the era and set out to revolutionise test cricket with an equally bold approach to the longest format of the game.

After years of under-achieving as a 50-overs side, Eoin Morgan led England to their maiden ODI World Cup triumph in 2019 and three years later Jos Buttler guided them to their second T20 World Cup title and made them the first team to possess both limited-overs crowns.

It was their premature exit from the 2015 World Cup in Australia that had forced England into overhauling their approach to limited-overs cricket.

And it took a 4-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia, and an equally dispiriting tour of West Indies, to force what the British media termed a "red-ball reset".

Accordingly, the reins of the test team were given to two men with identical cricket philosophies.

Ben Stokes replaced Joe Root as test captain and former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum came on board as coach, with the partnership yielding spectacular, and immediate, results.

At home, England won six of their first seven tests playing a highly entertaining brand of results-oriented cricket that made fans sit up and take notice.

Even those who doubted if the radical approach would succeed abroad have turned staunch "Bazball" believers after England registered their first series win in Pakistan since 2000-01.

"We're trying to make test cricket as exciting as the short formats," Stokes said after England conjured up one of their greatest away victories in Rawalpindi.

"Who doesn't want to watch a test go into day five and be played like that?"

Stokes insists England are not interested in draws and do not mind losing in their single-minded