Australian fast bowling great Glenn McGrath has delivered a scathing assessment of England's much-hyped Bazball approach, labelling the team's self-absorption as "rubbish" while drawing sharp contrasts with Australia's legendary teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The Accountability Gap
McGrath, speaking as a Toyota ambassador for the upcoming summer of cricket, acknowledged appreciating aspects of England's aggressive style but took particular issue with what he sees as a fundamental flaw in their philosophy. "I like the concept of Bazball," McGrath told 7NEWS.com.au. "The way England play, they either play incredibly well or they're just s***."
The core of McGrath's criticism centres on England's perceived lack of accountability under the leadership of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. "The thing with Bazball is, I like it when players go out and back themselves and play without fear. But they're also saying, 'There's no pressure. If you get out playing a bad shot at the wrong time, you're not going to be penalised for it', so there's no accountability, which I think is rubbish," McGrath stated bluntly.
Comparing Eras: Pressure vs Protection
McGrath played in what many consider Australia's greatest men's Test team, forming an devastating bowling partnership with Shane Warne that terrorised opposition batters for years. Under captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, the Australian team achieved the remarkable feat of winning 16 consecutive Test matches twice - between 1999-2001 and again from 2005-2008.
While both teams played aggressive cricket, McGrath emphasised the crucial difference lay in their attitude toward pressure. "That team I played in in the late 90s, early 2000s, we played a similar brand of cricket, but we loved the pressure, and that's when the best came out in us. We had that accountability," he explained.
McGrath believes England's attempt to remove pressure from their players is fundamentally misguided. "To go out and say, 'Oh no, just play how you want, no pressure', trying to take pressure off, I think is definitely the wrong way to go. That's where you're going to get a lot of average performances because they're not as mentally tough as they should be."
England's Reality Check
Despite the hype surrounding Bazball, the statistics reveal a team performing at average levels rather than rewriting history. England have finished fifth and fourth in the past two World Test Championship tables respectively, with a record of 14 wins from their past 28 Tests. Against cricket's powerhouses India and Australia, they've managed just five victories from 15 attempts, with ten of those matches played on home soil.
McGrath took particular issue with England players becoming arbiters of their own legacy. "My only other issue with that is the people talking up Bazball and their performances are themselves, which is rubbish," he said. "It's not up to the current players to judge how they're going; 'Oh, we're setting a new standard in the game, oh we're so entertaining' - that's all bulls***. It's about the public and your peers saying that."
The 2023 Ashes series provided perfect examples of this disconnect. After Australia's thrilling first Test victory at Edgbaston, England's response bordered on delusion. Coach McCullum told his players "It feels like we've won, lads" despite losing the match, while fast bowler Ollie Robinson claimed Australia needed to change their approach to keep up with England.
Robinson hasn't played for England since being dropped nearly two years ago, while Australia went on to win the second Test at Lord's to take a 2-0 series lead.
The Australian Way Forward
As England prepares for what McCullum has called "the biggest series of all of our lives" in Australia, they face daunting historical challenges. England are 0-13 in their past 15 Test matches on Australian soil, with their last red-ball victory Down Under coming in 2011 when Ben Stokes was still a teenager.
McGrath suggested that if England want to succeed in Australia, they should study how the great Australian teams approached pressure. "I always felt if we played as well as we could, no one could beat us. And it was that attitude, that aura, that you create around the team by the way other people view you, not how you view yourself internally."
The bowling legend concluded with some pointed advice for the current English setup: "If they could just change that attitude a little bit, I think they'd do a lot better. You can't just go out and be world-beaters one week and play absolute garbage the next."
