On Saturday, India sealed a 4-1 series victory over England as they won by an innings and 64 runs in the fifth Test at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala.
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The Indian spinners were at the forefront of India's win in Dharamsala, as they took 18 of the 20 English wickets to fall. India's batters also did their part, as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill scored centuries while Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Sarfaraz Khan scored half-centuries.
Despite India's solid performances with both bat and ball, they were helped by the fact that the visitors did not perform up to scratch. England's middle-order was outplayed with the bat, while the inexperience of Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir with the ball was on display at various points.
'Defenseless cricket': What is Ravichandran Ashwin's understanding of 'Bazball'?
On Monday, India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took to his YouTube channel to break down the events of the first couple of Test in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. India had lost the first match by 28 runs, looking confused at times against England's aggressive style of play.
Ashwin explained his takeaways from the loss when talking about the second Test. He said,
In the Vizag Test, the first two innings were the same as the first Test. We should have scored 500+, but underscored with 300 odd in the first innings. As usual, they were in their aggressive route, with Crawley and Duckett.
The one thing I personally understood after the first Test is that Bazball isn't just aggressive cricket. It is defenseless cricket. They aren't going to play a defensive shot at all, like a mindset of "we are going to get out if we play defense." To my surprise even Joe Root bought into that approach, because he is clearly the world's best defensive player against spin if you ask me.
England's style of play since the takeover of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach has led to some entertaining cricket and largely good results, but has come unstuck against other top teams like England and Australia.
Stokes attempted to provide his own definition of the style after the end of the series, saying, "In my opinion it's wanting to be a better player. In the face of defeat and failure, Bazball will hopefully inspire people to become better players and become even better than what we are."
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