OLIVER HOLT: So sad to lose faith in Bazball in the face of adversity

OLIVER HOLT: So sad to lose faith in Bazball at the very first signs of adversity as England falter on day three but there’s no going back now

• England lost their last six wickets for 46 runs in the morning session at Lord’s
• There were undeniably moments when their batters looked like lemmings 
• Re-live a frustrating day three for England after being bowled out for just 325 

As England’s players trudged slowly back to the pavilion at lunch, reeling from the events of the morning they had left behind, the soldiers of the British Army Band Tidworth took up position in front of the Grand Stand and raised their instruments to their lips.

After a little while, they marched around to the Warner Stand and performed there, too. And then past the pavilion to station themselves in front of the Tavern Stand and the Mound Stand until they arrived beneath the Media Centre, that digital alarm clock in the sky.

Gazing down on them, David Lloyd, the former England opener, England coach and commentator beyond compare, neatly articulated the sinking feeling so many of the supporters inside Lord’s were feeling. ‘And the band played on,’ he said.

It had been a sobering passage of play that had reduced the Home of Cricket to a sullen silence. England had lost their last six wickets for 46 runs and the manner of some of the dismissals had led to the now familiar chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the keepers of the flame.

There were moments, undeniably, when England’s batsmen had looked like lemmings rushing towards a cliff as Australia’s bowlers peppered them with a barrage of short deliveries. They did not shirk the challenge. They swung for the fences and, generally, they missed.

Australia picked up England’s final six wickets at the cost of just 46 runs on Friday morning

England kept to their attacking philosophy by swinging for the fences but generally they missed

It would be sad if faith were lost in Brendon McCullum’s Bazball now at the very first sign of adversity

Exhibit A was Harry Brook stepping away from his stumps and aiming a wild, mistimed, cross-batted slash at a short delivery from Mitchell Starc, watching it loop in a lazy arc softly into the hands of Pat Cummins at extra cover. 

Jonny Bairstow chipped a tame catch to mid-on. Ollie Robinson charged down the wicket to makeshift spinner Travis Head and edged him into the hands of wicketkeeper Alex Carey and, after that, the end came quickly.

England had made 325, 91 short of Australia’s first innings total, when they had started the day aiming for parity at least. By the end of the day, Australia had a lead comfortably north of 200. It felt as if that morning session might have been pivotal in the match and perhaps this Ashes series as a whole.

As England struggle to keep pace with this formidable Australian team in a breathless sequence of Tests crammed into June and July, their continued embrace of a more aggressive style of cricket has exposed and exacerbated deep fault-lines and insecurities within the English game and those who love and cherish it.

England had a bad session on Friday morning. It happens. After 11 wins in their previous 14 games, they were probably due one. But the alacrity with which the mass of opinion pounced on it, and sought to portray it as an apocalypse for Bazball, hinted at something deeper than disappointment about a few rash shots.

It feels as if there is a fear among some cricket fans that Brendon McCullum, the England coach, and skipper Ben Stokes are fifth columnists who are colonising the Test game on behalf of the limited overs format.

‘I’ve enjoyed Bazball as much as the next person,’ a reader called John texted in to the BBC website, ‘but enough. This obsessive, aggressive, kamikaze batting has to be toned down. So disappointing to see England throwing it away.’

In an era of the sport when white-ball cricket is gaining more and more territory and time, and more traction among younger followers, when there is talk of the best limited overs players being contracted all year round by franchises with teams in leagues in India, Saudi Arabia and the USA, the desire to preserve the more measured, cerebral, strategic form of the game, unpolluted by limited overs ideology, feels stronger than ever.

England and Yorkshire legend Geoffrey Boycott was unable to watch as Harry Brook played a horror shot

Brook aimed a wild slash at a Mitchell Starc ball which looped softly into the hands of Pat Cummins

Traditionalists are suspicious of England’s new style of play. They think it is a gimmick and they think it is disrespectful of Test cricket. They think it is naive. They think it rather vulgar.

The reality, of course, is that it is a breathtakingly bold version of Test cricket that is the best hope of the game, in this form, surviving.

And guess what? England will not excel in every session of every game playing it. Sometimes, like on Friday morning, it will make them look foolish and reckless.

Sometimes, horror of horrors, they might even lose a match here and there. But when they get the mix of aggression and caution right, the sport they provide is peerless. So, yes, Brook’s dismissal looked ugly and distinctly ‘village’, but he had scored a half-century playing that way by then.

Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were bowling brilliantly and the ball was moving around under leaden skies, so perhaps Brook figured the risk was worthwhile.

Perhaps he decided he would rather lose his wicket trying to take the game to the opponents than trying to lean into a forward defensive prod and edging a delivery behind.

In the new puritanical spirit pushing back against Bazball, losing your wicket to a poor defensive shot is far more preferable than losing it trying to attack.

Oh for the times when England scored at less than three an over, were paralysed by caution and doubt, had no clear philosophy and looked frightened to play their shots and trust their talent. They went on a run of 17 Test matches where they only won once. Those were the days.

There are times, of course, when this England team need to refine their approach.

McCullum’s approach has already contributed to one of the greatest Tests of all time in the first meeting at Edgbaston

Australia’s attack featuring Josh Hazlewood and Cummins (pictured) bowled well on Friday

They need to choose their moments to go hard, as they did in the Tests of last summer. Australia were always going to present the toughest challenge to England’s new philosophy because they are the best Test team in the world.

But it would be sad if faith were lost in Bazball now, at the very first sign of adversity, and we followed the urgings of men like jilted John.

This summer, it has already helped to conjure the epic contest at Edgbaston, widely considered to be one of the greatest Test matches of all time.

There is no reason to change tack. There is no going back.

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