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Michael Clarke has put England players in their place over their Bazball ignorance.
The Poms were blown off the park against India in the third Test, losing by a humiliating 434-runs after being bowled out for 122 runs in their second innings.
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Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal put England to the sword with his second double century in successive Tests as he battered an unbeaten 214 runs.
Despite the one-sided nature of the contest, English opener Ben Duckett believes the Poms should be given credit for the aggressive style of play being adopted by teams in Test cricket.
“When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we [England] should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket,” Duckett said in Rajkot at the end of day three.
“We saw it a bit in the summer and it’s quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket.”
Clarke couldn’t believe what he had heard and slammed the Poms for forgetting just how damaging Australian teams of the past played.
“He must have missed Australia for 20 years,” Clarke said on ESPN’s Around The Wicket.
“As a youngster, he must not know what Test cricket Australia played. Has he heard of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist? These guys used to smack it as good as everyone.
“Because you play a reverse sweep or a switch hit or a ramp shot, that doesn’t mean you are batting aggressively either.
“Matthew Hayden just walked down the wicket and hit you straight over your head for a six. He didn’t have to play a ramp or a switch hit.”
Clarke says teams aren’t necessarily showing off more aggression than what we’ve seen in the past, but believes T20 cricket is having a bigger influence on shot-making.
“I don’t know … Look, I love the way they are playing, I love aggressive, positive cricket in any format. And now, because of T20 cricket, we are seeing different shots, we are seeing players play the full 360 in all three formats. You didn’t see that as much in Test cricket.
“If somebody bowled a bouncer, 90 per cent you’d see a hook shot or a pull shot. Ten per cent you would see it someone ramp it over slips. You are seeing different shots, but you are not seeing more aggression or more positivity.
“I can tell you a number of innings where I was lucky enough to bat with the superstars, and once they got to 20/30/40, mate, if they wanted to, they could have gone 7/10/15 runs an over, whatever they wanted to.
“It was about building an innings to get the team into a position. Finding a bowler you found most comfortable with and taking it to him. Hayden, the way he swept Harbhajan Singh through the 2001 Test series – so aggressive, so positive – but it was a genuine sweep shot, it was not a reverse.”
While Clarke showed love to the Poms for the Bazball approach, he once again reminded them they weren’t the first Test nation to play aggressive cricket.
“I love the aggressive approach of England. I think it has worked, they are building a really good foundation to play great cricket. They are getting the results they want, they did it in this Test [Rajkot].
“Playing in India is tough: you can sit there and block, you gonna get one with your name on it. You might try a reverse sweep and you might hit it straight to backward point. It’s just the way the game goes.
“I think people need to be realistic and understand, as a batsman, your job is to score runs and there have been plenty of great players and plenty of teams around the world score plenty of runs against good opposition.
“England is not the first team to play aggressive or bat positively.”
Despite the praise from Clarke, England currently sit second last on the World Test Championship standings with three wins, four losses and one draw to their name.
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