English cricket legend Geoffrey Boycott’s reaction to his side’s Ashes collapse day three at Lord’s

The Bazball style of cricket which has served England so well over the past 18 months, may have struck a popularity snag with fans starting to turn on it.

Australia have the chance to set an imposing fourth-innings chase and push for a 2-0 Ashes series lead after England’s Bazball approach blew up in their face at Lord’s. 

Bazball is an informal cricketing term first coined by sport journalists and bloggers during last year’s English cricket season referring to the style of play of Test matches. 

It was developed after the appointments of Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum  as Test cricket head coach and current skipper Ben Stokes.

The Bazball style and mindset is to attack, whether batting or in the field.

Cricketing royalty England’s Geoffrey Boycott covers his face hoping he can unsee a shot by Harry Brook that cost him his wicket for 50

England’s Harry Brook looks more like he’s playing for the New York Yankees as he winds up a la Bazball style to slog one straight to Pat Cummins and loses his wicket

And it grew considerably in popularity when results were going England’s way. This Ashes test series, however, it is all falling apart.

In what always loomed as a crucial day for both the second Test and entire Ashes series, Australia went to stumps on 2-130 and leading by 221 when rain stopped play.

And while Australia did well to navigate through gloomy conditions with Usman Khawaja’s unbeaten 58 leading the way, England’s blows were largely self inflicted.

Legendary English cricketer and renowned broadcaster, Geoffrey Boycott whose style of play was completely the opposite to Bazball, wore his heart of his sleeve as these images suggest during day three of the Lord’s Test.

In one shot he covers his face after an attempted stroke, in another he simply looks amazed as he tries to describe the shot with friends. That last one was after the choice of strokes by Harry Brook.

It eventually led to his downfall as his attempted to flat-bat a Mitchell Starc delivery through the off side which resulted in a catch to Cummins at cover. 

Boycott is not the only one left exacerbated by the English play, with many fans now calling for the death of Bazball. 

‘Embarrassing from England. Embarrassing from Brook who has likely had untold amounts of money and time invested in his coaching as a young player to get him through the pro ranks, to be effectively told to bat like village slogger,’ one fan tweeted.

‘Bazball has had its day,’ another posted.

Boycott still amazed at how his fellow Yorkshireman, Harry Brook played a shot that cost him his wicket

‘England is a meme of a cricket team. They are easily digestible, they are unapologetic and they are losing,’ added another. 

‘They might be in the entertainment business but they aren’t in the winning business,’ posted another.

‘Bazball is trash against good bowling,’ claimed another.

‘It’s Bazball vs Corleone Cricket. While England forecast how they will play, swear allegiance to their tactics, name their team early, & tell us what the coach says, Australia never let anyone outside the family know what we’re thinking,’ posted another.

‘Bazball is like World Series Cricket in that it is relentlessly portrayed (by those who have benefitted from it) as having saved cricket, when cricket didn’t actually need saving.’

England will attempt to chase down whatever is set for them, having refused to play for a draw under Brendon McCullum.

‘We’ve seen some crazy things from this line up in the past year,’ assistant coach Jeetan Patel said on Friday.

‘This team is about breaking records, they want to sell out grounds.’

But Australia will believe they can set a target big enough to make Friday morning’s collapse series-defining.