Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has been impressed with England and 'Bazball' in the opening three days of the Edgbaston Ashes Test.
Ponting was one of many pundits and former players to discuss whether England would be able to successfully play in their new attacking style against a team of Australia’s calibre.
“There was a lot of chat around 'will Bazball stand up? Are they going to be courageous enough to play that way against the Australians?’,” Ponting said on ICC Review.
“Well, I think that question has been answered for us.
“It’s certainly there, the way that they want to play, this bold new approach to Test match cricket, trying to make bold decisions at any stage in the game where they can.
“(Opener) Zak Crawley made a pretty big statement on the game I thought. First ball of the Test match, Australia captain (Pat Cummins) running in, ball one of an Ashes series and he stands up on top of the bounce and crunches one through the covers first ball.
“You don't see that every day. And that's a sign of what's to come, but also a sign of this change of attitude from the current England team.”
England captain Ben Stokes tried all sorts of experimental field placings and bowling tactics during Australia's first innings in Birmingham, with a highly-unusual field helping remove centurion Usman Khawaja on day three.
And Ponting says Stokes’s commitment to moving things forward is a fantastic fillip for the Test game.
“It’s hard to keep up with them all, he's making a change almost every ball, which is great, it's proactive captaincy. He's always trying to move the game forward, he's looking at any little way that he possibly can to pick up a wicket and change the momentum of the game," Ponting noted.
“With Khawaja’s innings, I'd hate to try and count how many times he changed the field for him and how many bowling changes and tactical changes he made to try and get Khawaja out - and then it finally worked.
“I don't think I've ever seen a field like that in Test cricket before. There was just an umbrella of fielders around in-front of the batsman's face. And it was all about bowling a couple of slower balls and being able to bowl a yorker. And sure enough, Khawaja used his feet, gave himself some room, gave up his stumps, and the yorker knocked his off stump out of the ground.
“It's fantastic stuff. It's really refreshing for the Test game to see a team play this way and a captain happy to try everything he possibly can.”
