England have given up on Bazball in the first innings of the third Test against India at Lord’s. The batters didn’t go for big shots and relied on singles and occasional boundaries to keep the scorecard moving. Ben Stokes’ team has often talked about giving importance to the scoring rate in the longest format of the game. However, the pitch at Lord’s was challenging for the batters, and the hosts decided to play cautiously instead of targeting the Indian bowlers.

Harsha Bhogle and Cheteshwar Pujara were not surprised to see England adopting a defensive approach to amass runs in the ongoing game. Joe Root faced close to 160 balls to post 81 runs.

Zak Crawley (18 off 43), Ben Duckett (23 off 40), Ollie Pope (44 off 104), Harry Brook (11 off 20), and Ben Stokes (32* off 69) took their time.

“Bazball has turned into dot ball. England would have lost five wickets by second session if they had played the way they have been playing for few years. A batter like Joe Root hasn’t been fluent. This shows batting hasn’t been easy,” Harsha Bhogle said.

Pujara agreed with him. “This is the revamp version of Bazball. This is what Test cricket is all about. You can’t have my way or highway approach. If England continue with this style, there is a possibility of making it to the final of the World Test Championship,” Cheteshwar Pujara said.

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