Can Bazball end timid England’s slump?

Bengaluru, October 25

England may need to take a leaf out of the Test side’s Bazball playbook and reignite their 50-over World Cup campaign with an aggressive approach against fellow strugglers Sri Lanka, spin all-rounder Moeen Ali said today.

Under Test coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum England have forged a result-oriented approach in the longest format and Moeen said the One-day team guided by Matthew Mott must look to play more attacking cricket after losing three of their four games.

“The thing is, Bazball is in Test cricket. One-day cricket’s different and we’ve been playing different all the time,” Moeen said on the eve of their match against the 1996 champions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

“We’ve been playing aggressive cricket throughout since 2015 and done it quite well. Probably the lack of that way of cricket has cost us a little bit in this tournament. We haven’t been playing that way in my opinion and we need to play that way without slogging the ball. Just be that really aggressive side we know we can be.”

Defending champions England crashed to a team record 229-run defeat by South Africa in their last game leaving their semifinal hopes hanging by a thread.

The clash with Sri Lanka, who have also lost three of their four games, comes at the right time for England and Moeen said the players had to take responsibility.

“We’re obviously disappointed from the result and not just the result, but the way we played. But in the competition you’ve got to move on as quickly as you can and regroup,” Moeen added. “Everything is a must-win... we have to get our confidence and perform well.” — Reuters

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