IND vs ENG 2022 | Rishabh Pant came out to play a bit of ‘Bazball’, exclaims Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood compared Rishabh Pant’s incredible strokemaking on the first day of the Edgbaston Test on Friday to Brendon McCullum’s attacking philosophy saying he played a bit of ‘Bazball’. He further revealed that Englad bowlers tried to wrap up India’s innings with help of moisture in surface.
England have made a name for themselves of late as a fiercely aggressive side that likes to take the game to the opposition. Their unique brand of cricket, inspired by the ethos of new head coach Brendon McCullum, was evident in full flow against New Zealand last month. The hosts swept the Black Caps 3-0 through some incredible gung ho batting, chasing down three daunting totals in the series.
However, they got a taste of their own medicine against India on the first day of the final Test match in Edgbaston. Rishabh Pant completely flipped the script on England to etch a memorable century and give India the advantage in the contest. His fearless 146 off just 111 deliveries drew plaudits from all across the globe, including retired batsman Paul Collingwood.
“ Pant came out to play a bit of Bazball, as everyone keeps calling it. I take my hat off to the way that Pant played. When you play against world-class players, they can do world-class things. And today he had his day,” Collingwood humbly remarked in the press conference at the end of day’s play.
England have time and again tried to redefine Test cricket in recent years by playing an entertaining brand of the game. Players like Rishabh Pant, who maintains a strike rate well over 70 in the format, have only lent more legitimacy to this attacking philosophy. Collingwood opined that Pant played an entertaining inning.
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Find Out“ said right from the start about the bigger picture of Test cricket and that for it to survive, we’ve got to make it much more entertaining, and today’s cricket was entertaining. There were wickets, there were runs, there were great catches. When you’re watching someone as entertaining as Pant, you’ve got to applaud an innings like that,” Collingwood added.
England were in firm control early on in the encounter having reduced India to 98/5 courtesy of some brilliant new-ball bowling. Despite the setback enforced by Rishabh Pant’s innings, the England coach remains optimistic about his team’s chances considering the state of the pitch.
“When you have a bit of moisture in the pitch early on, you have a chance to take early wickets, which is what we did. We’re going against the grain of much of the cricket that’s been played over the last 100 years. We are trying to play as positive as possible, and play entertaining cricket. Ben is not going to take a backwards step,” the former interim head coach revealed.
“I don’t feel as if our backs were against the wall for too long. I think the batsmen should be excited about batting on that wicket. It will be a great result if we keep them down to 360, 370,” Collingwood concluded.
England will be hoping to see off India’s tail in a hurry on the second day and restrict them from adding too many runs to their present score of 338/7.