Former England Captains Criticize Team's Aggressive Approach After Defeat to India

Following their thumping by India in the third Test on Sunday, former England captains took aim at the squad's high-wire 'Bazball' style and demanded that Ben Stokes's team moderate their aggressive attitude to prevent further humiliation.

"This England side is determined to'rescue Test cricket' and do things their way. They are so intriguing that they are giving Test cricket a shot in the arm," Michael Vaughan said in the Daily Telegraph in Britain.


But in the end, they need to improve upon that today. They failed to win the Ashes, they failed in New Zealand, and if they continue in this manner, they will fail in India as well. You are evaluated as a team based on series wins.

"They [England] need to look at the way (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and Shubman Gill played," Vaughan said. After taking in the strain for thirty or forty balls, they began to receive boundaries.

That's the main idea behind Test batting. In 228.5 overs, India has amassed 875 runs. Nobody can tell me that watching India bat here has been dull.

Ben Duckett, the opener, made some unrealistic remarks after the third day about how much he thought was a realistic aim that England could chase down. Michael Atherton called this ridiculous.

As Atherton said in The Times, "One can question this England team's occasional self-delusion while also admiring the positivity and playfulness of Ben Duckett and this team."

"The Bazball way is not resource conservation." They have been really wasteful in this game, missing a fantastic chance to build on Duckett's outstanding second-day century and reach parity or higher in the first innings.

Nasser Hussain said in his Daily Mail column that England has to learn from its failures.

"If England doesn't make any changes, Bazball will just become an unquestionable cult," he said.

"I'm not asking them to change their catchphrase; I'm just asking them to look back on the last few games and ask, 'How can we get better?'"

English umpire Richard Kettleborough wrote on X, "R.I.P. Bazball." England is no longer respected.

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