England's Bazball approach has caught the attention of the world. Since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over as the Test captain and head coach, respectively, the English team has shown an aggressive, fast-paced batting action in the longest format. Their approach saw them level the high-octane Ashes 2023 series against reigning Test champions Australia. Questions keep popping up about whether this method can work everywhere.
In a recent interaction with ESPNCricinfo, England opener Zak Crawley opened up on the upcoming India series and how Bazball can play in India. The series will be played from January 25 onwards and will end in early March. The venues for the five-match series will be Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala. Crawley opened on the tour. "I don't really know much about their grounds. Sometimes in India it seams and swings a bit — and they've got unbelievable seamers — so hopefully there are a couple of pitches there that are like that as well, that will suit us a bit more,” Crawley said.
Crawley looks to tick off a bit of T20 Cricket for now and then get back into it in the India series. "I'll tick off a bit of T20 and hopefully a bit of white-ball stuff somewhere, but then (getting) back into it in India will be an amazing opportunity for our team to see how we go in those conditions,” he said. The Indian pitches are well known for spinning and Crawley is aware of the threat that those turfs present. "But if it's spinning. I feel like we play spin really well as well. We'll just have to adapt, see what we get. But they are pretty unknown grounds — I don't know if they're going to be raggers like Ahmedabad and Chennai, where we were last time," he added.
The first Test of the series will be played from January 25-29 in Hyderabad, second from February 2-6 in Visakhapatnam, third from February 15-19 in Rajkot, fourth from February 23-27 to Ranchi, and fifth from March 7-11 at Dharamsala.
