RIP Bazball: McCullum’s philosophy burned bright but all too briefly

The sacked England Test coach reinvigorated an ailing team in 2022, but his super-aggressive style proved unsustainable Farewell, then, to Bazball, the approach defined upon its adoption by the Collins English Dictionary in 2023 as “a style of Test cricket in which the batting side attempts to gain the initiative by playing in a highly aggressive manner”. In time the manner grew less aggressive, the attempts to gain the initiative less evident, and the results less convincing. Brendon McCullum,…