India’s Rohit, Gill Slam Centuries as England’s ‘Bazball’ Falters
India’s dominance continued on Day 2 of the 5th Test against England in Dharamsala, with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill slamming centuries in a non-traditional manner. Their rapid scoring prompted former England star Owais Shah to question the reason behind India’s high strike rate.
Saba Karim, the former India cricketer, reminded Shah of Rohit Sharma’s pre-match comment about England’s Ben Duckett suggesting that England should get credit for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s high strike rate. Rohit had responded by saying, “There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him play.”
Karim echoed Rohit’s sentiment, saying, “Should I respond the same way Rohit did, saying you guys have not seen Rishabh Pant bat?”
England’s ‘Bazball’ approach, which emphasizes aggressive batting, has been a topic of discussion before the series. However, Ben Stokes’ men have struggled to implement it in India. Rohit expressed his confusion about the term, saying, “I honestly don’t know what [Bazball] means, whether it is to go and strike, whether it is to go and defend and wait for the loose ball.”
“I have not seen any wild swinging from anyone, so I don’t know exactly what this term means,” Rohit added. “But, yeah, clearly they have played better cricket from what they played the last time they were here.”
Despite England’s struggles, Rohit acknowledged the success of their batters who scored big hundreds. “They applied their method to get some success and they got it,” he said. “But other than that I don’t know what it means.”