ENG vs IND 2025: Team India’s key bowling adjustments to defeat England’s Bazball approach.
After a crushing defeat at Leeds in the first Test, Team India need to regroup quickly and get their act together for the rest of the series. But one of the major obstacles for India going forward in this Anderson Tendulkar trophy would be the Bazball. How their bowlers will counter Bazball and get 20 wickets in a Test match is going to be the main talking point in this series.
So what India need to do better than the first Test to negate the Bazball threat? Let’s find out.
India need to find right set of bowlers
To counter this England challenge, one thing India should do is find the right personnel for the job. They shouldn’t be afraid to make changes according to the pitch conditions and situations. If it means to drop senior pros like Mohammed Siraj or Shardul Thakar, and include the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep or Arshdeep Singh, the team management needs to take these important calls.
While the selected lot of pacers in the Leeds Test have great potential, they weren’t up to the mark. England batters feasted on some lacklustre and ordinary bowling from some of the India pacers. Poor catching did play a part but going for 4 or 5 runs per overs in a Test match as a premier bowler is unacceptable.
In the first innings, the experienced Siraj bowled at an ER of 4.51 (22 overs) and Prasidh Krishna was even worse (128 in 20 overs), while Shardul Thakur was sparsely used. Come the second innings, Siraj bowled a tad better and was unlucky, but Krishna and Thakur leaked plenty of runs.
Hence it is high time the captain and coach of India figures out the bowlers who will do the job of taking 20 wickets and counter England’s Bazball.
Read More: ENG vs IND, 2025: Changes desired in India’s XI for Edgbaston Test
Bowl with right mindset
In the opening Test match at Leeds, the courage amongst the India bowlers was clearly lacking. Once the England batters started attacking, India took a defensive approach and looked down and out. Their shoulders dropped despite the fact that they had enough runs on the board in both innings to put the pressure back on England.
Jasprit Bumrah did that job to an extent in the first innings but found little support from the other end. It is up to the bowlers themselves to be positive and upbeat but at the same time, the team management needs to boost the confidence of the individuals.
Confidence aside, the bowlers and coach need to work on the skills needed to counter different batters. With enough data available to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent batters, the bowlers need to go back to the drawing board to plan on what line and lengths to bowl. The first Test will likely prepare them for what lies ahead of them in this series.
With a proper plan on where to bowl to which batter, India bowlers can succeed to an extent in their bid to get those 20 wickets.
Read More: Bumrah proving to be a one-man army for India in Tests; What’s ailing his support cast?
Tackling Bazball won’t be easy
Yes, the visitors need to go in with a proper plan and execute it well to counter bazball, but it doesn’t guarantee them success, here is why. This is because England have played with the Bazball approach for a few seasons now and they now have a clear-cut plan on how to bat in these conditions.
They don’t stop playing attacking cricket and score those runs at 4 or 5 runs per over but at the same time, they play cautiously. A look at their approach in the first Test shows that they were willing to play Bumrah or anyone who is in the middle of a good spell safe, and attack the rest. So, they are mixing caution with aggression, while maintaining a good run rate.
So, it is imperative that all the bowlers bowl tight lines to these batters and not bowl those loose deliveries. In this way, they will not get the easy runs. As a bowling unit, India needs to be one or two steps ahead of Ben Stokes led side to tackle Bazball in the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy.
Read More: ENG vs IND, 2025: Shubman Gill appeared clueless as captain in Headingley Test
