Kolkata: For the better part of a decade now England’s Test team have tried to answer the wrong question. Lurching from one extreme to another, confusing style for substance, philosophy for performance, capitulating in some of the biggest tours and eventually showing up with barely anything, England could be excused for thinking they have thrilled and entertained.
They have, to be fair, in bits and parts, never to go all the way. These four years under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes was a dizzying ride of fast-forward cricket with heavy tailwind, taking England on the scenic route but ending up at the same place.
It makes England’s decision of reverting to Joe Root as captain and Stephen Fleming as coach remarkable. It’s not just a rebalancing act but a factory reset of settings that England discarded after facing accusations of being timid, conservative and trapped by convention, the last straw a 10-wicket defeat at Barbados in March, 2022.
Four years since that defeat, with the Bazball experiment finally shelved following another Ashes humiliation in Australia and a chastening home draw to India, England have arrived at an equally uncomfortable destination: spectacularly entertaining, undeniably influential, but scarcely more successful.
The numbers are chastening too. A better win-loss ratio (1.35) in these four years compared to the phase before that yes, but equal number of defeats (20) in fewer Tests. Significantly, only two draws since 2022 compared to nine in the phase before doesn’t exactly strengthen the argument that a team would prefer losing than drawing because the whole concept of staying undefeated is any day better on paper as it encompasses wins and draws.
That is why the appointment of Root and Fleming feels less the ushering in of a new era and more an admission that England have spent four years chasing an illusion. With McCullum there was never any tactical framework to fall back on. It was all impulse and gumption, rarely any strategy and barely any patience. Even before England had played a Test, Bazball had become a cultural identity, a marketing slogan and, eventually, a shield against criticism. Winning became desirable, playing ‘the right way’ became essential. And somewhere along the way, England forgot that Test cricket has always rewarded balance over absolutism.
That, perhaps, is Bazball’s greatest paradox. It changed the conversation around Test cricket more than it changed England’s fortunes within it. For a while, the revolution felt irresistible. But as opponents adapted, Bazball’s greatest strengths slowly revealed their greatest weaknesses. Teams stopped being intimidated by England’s relentless aggression because they knew it rarely changed. There was comfort in England’s predictability. England, supposedly the disruptors, had become the easiest side to read.
The scoreboard reflected the shift. Australia dismantled them twice in the Ashes. India outplayed them at home in 2024. Away from familiar pitches, Bazball increasingly looked like a clickbait story than a sustainable blueprint.
The finest Test teams have always attacked. Steve Waugh’s Australia hunted victories on the most foreign of pitches. Graeme Smith’s South Africa squeezed opponents with relentless discipline until they cracked. Under Virat Kohli, India chased wins in all conditions. Stokes’ greatest innings remain monuments to calculated aggression.
But calculation was what Bazball gradually abandoned. There appeared to be only one acceptable tempo, mindset, and response to adversity. Context, that most precious currency in Test cricket, had quietly become secondary to commitment.
Now comes the inevitable correction. Root’s return as captain is symbolic beyond the obvious, given how Stokes proved a psychologically draining factor for England in recent months. Root’s instinct has always been to let situations breathe before acting. Fleming, meanwhile, has built one of modern sport’s most admired coaching reputations through clarity, preparation and emotional restraint. His Chennai Super Kings have rarely been the loudest team, but almost always the smartest.
With them, England are effectively admitting that emotional control may provide a greater competitive advantage than emotional liberation. There is no doubt England have rediscovered an attacking instinct that had almost vanished from their DNA. Yet they were undermined by an institutional refusal to recognise that every strength carries its own limits.
History is unlikely to judge Bazball by its marketing success. It will judge by whether England became the world’s best Test team. They didn’t get even close to being one. Instead, England spent four years searching for an identity when what they truly needed was steady progress. The result is a team that has travelled a full circle — from being too cautious to being too carefree — and finally returned to being moderate. In their journey lies the template of what not to do in a format that keeps finding ways to challenge cricket on several levels.