Paul Collingwood, the assistant coach of the England cricket team, has suggested that Rishabh Pant’s batting on the first day of the Edgbaston test match might have been influenced by the brand of cricket that England has been playing under their new coach Brendon McCullum.
England has been very aggressive with the bat, particularly in the middle order, since McCullum has taken over as their red ball head coach. That brand of cricket has been fondly termed “Bazball” by the English fans.
Rishabh Pant played a bit like that yesterday as he came out with India 5 down for less than 100, but he didn’t let the situation dictate him rather he dictated the situation by counter-attacking almost every bowler that England brought into the attack.
When Paul Collingwood, who addressed the press at the end of the first day’s play yesterday, was asked about Pant’s batting, he said that Pant was playing a bit of Bazball. Collingwood also insisted that it was a good batting surface and if England were able to restrict India below 370 on this surface, it would be a job well done by the poms.
Paul Collingwood was of the opinion that the England batsmen would also enjoy batting on the Edgbaston surface and England hadn’t fallen behind in the contest on the first day.
Paul Collingwood might not be accurate with his remarks on Rishabh Pant
Collingwood’s remarks on Pant’s approach might not be accurate because Pant has always batted with the same counter-attacking approach in test match cricket right since the start of his career. Even in the test series that India and England had played back in India last year, it was on more than one occasion that England was on the receiving end of a Pant counter-attack.
The southpaw wicket-keeper batsman did no different yesterday to what he has been doing right through his test career and there was probably no influence of “Bazball” on his batting, as Collingwood suggested.
