ENG vs IND 2025: India outsmarts England at Edgbaston—Is Bazball cracking under scoreboard pressure?
At the end of the third day of the Edgbaston Test, Harry Brook was confident of England going for the ‘chase whatever India set’ for them. The confidence was understandable after their second successful fourth-innings chase of 373/5 at Leeds a week ago. But were they prepared to go for a target of over 600 runs?
When their batting coach Marcus Trescothick appeared before the media, his voice didn’t echo the same. At the end of the fourth day, the home side was struggling at 72/3 in pursuit of 608. The former England opener’s ‘not stupid enough to understand that we have to win or lose’ comment brought a smile to the Indian camp.
The secret sauce of Bazball
Transformation is important in any format of the game for any side. And that transformation doesn’t always mean looking to the future batch of players. When the Blue Brigade chased 406/4 in the fourth innings of the Port of Spain Test against the West Indies in 1976, Clive Lloyd changed the team’s philosophy. They started to counter by unleashing the four-prolonged pace attack.
It was nearly the same case with New Zealand. They were bundled out for 45 against South Africa in the first innings of the Newlands Test in 2012. That was when Brendon McCullum decided to bring aggression to the batting department.
England were going through the same route facing a 4-0 series defeat in the Ashes 2021/22. That was followed by a 1-0 defeat in the Caribbean. That installed Bazball under captain Ben Stokes and coach McCullum. It’s an aggressive mindset of batting that keeps the opposition on their toes.
It’s also a winning mentality taking fear out of the equation. Whether it’s about nailing the first ball of an Ashes series to the boundary or chasing big targets, the message is crystal clear. They always want to maintain pressure on the opposition.
Since the introduction of Bazball in June 2022, England have won 24 of the 38 Test fixtures, with 13 defeats. The only drawn result was the famous Ashes 2023 contest at Old Trafford when rain had the last laugh.
Out of those, Stokes and his side experienced 16 victories in 22 red-ball games at home. In this aspect, their win-loss ratio of 3.20 is behind Australia’s 5.50 (11 wins in 15 home Tests) and South Africa’s 7.00 (seven wins in eight home Tests) during this period.
In this passage, their batters have earned incredible success. Out of the top-five leading Test run-getters, four players belong to England. Joe Root is at the top of the list with 3226 runs at 55.62, followed by Brook’s 2619 runs at 59.52.
Read More: ENG vs IND, 2025, 2nd Test, Day 5: Akash Deep’s 6-99 helps India draw level 1-1 with 3 games to go
India and Shubman Gill’s smart tactic to counter England’s Bazball
Due to India’s successive lower-order collapses, England got a target of 371 at Leeds to chase in three and a half sessions. That was in their territory. They had already chased 378/3 at Edgbaston in 2022 against the same opposition. So, the confidence was always there while the tourists’ fielding contributed more in that effort.
However, Edgbaston 2025 was different. This time, India didn’t drop many chances. And a dominating batting performance extended the challenge to 608 runs in the fourth innings. That gave more chances to the bowler to try various plans and also led the captain to keep an attacking field for a long period.
Test cricket isn’t like ODIs. To go for nearly a run-a-ball for more than 100 overs isn’t walking in the park. That’s where Gill played it mentally.
Before India’s 336-run victory in Birmingham, England had been set a 500+ target twice since the introduction of Bazball (01 June 2022). On both occasions against India in Rajkot and New Zealand in Hamilton, the Ben Stokes-led side fell apart like a pack of cards. They lost by 434 and 423 runs respectively, their second and fourth biggest defeats by runs in Test history.
The five-day format has its ebbs and flows. The home side, even after losing Zak Crawley in the second over of the chase, kept playing their shots. But once they kept losing wickets, the goal kept getting further away from them. Jamie Smith tried with 88 runs in 99 balls, but an individual performance was never going to be enough in a 600+ chase.
Now the question arises, will England again go for such targets in the future? They will, only if the chase remains in their vicinity. And that’s where Gill and India need to be smart. They need to set such targets for this opposition where victory isn’t an option. That’s where this England side looks frazzled.
With the series leveled at 1-1, both teams will have a huge task next week at Lord’s. After two flat surfaces at Leeds and Edgbaston, the question will also be on the 22-yard.
If the hosts make it seam-friendly, do they have the approach to design a huge fourth innings chase with the Bazball approach? Or will the bowlers keep suffering on flat surfaces?
Read More: Shubman Gill’s epic effort at Edgbaston: A statistical review
