England’s much-touted Bazball strategy lost its sparkle in Hyderabad as soon as the Indian spinners, including Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja, combined to claim eight wickets in the first innings.
Adding insult to injury, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s aggressive batting against England’s new ball operators seemed to embody a more effective implementation of the Bazball approach.
Following England’s first innings total of 246, Jaiswal began the second innings on a high note, hammering three fours and two sixes within the initial four overs. Mark Wood delivered a fuller-length ball around the leg stump on the first ball of the innings, expertly flicked by Jaiswal towards the deep backward square leg region for a boundary.
In the next over, Tom Hartley’s tossed-up delivery was met with a confident shimmy down the ground by Jaiswal, lofting the ball over the long-on region for a six. Just four balls later, the young batsman elegantly executed a slog sweep on a fuller, wider delivery, sending the ball soaring over the deep mid-wicket region for his second maximum in the second over.
— Glennmax (@maxglenn425) January 25, 2024
— Glennmax (@maxglenn425) January 25, 2024
Bazball ❎ Jaiswal ✅
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) January 25, 2024
Yashasvi brings up his 50 with style🔥#INDvsENG #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries #JioCinemaSports #BazBowled pic.twitter.com/cdXz1LSAnv
Jaiswal’s fearless approach was further highlighted when, in the fourth over against Hartley, he pulled off a pull shot and a drive, standing up to the challenge posed by the Ben Stokes-led bowling unit. He eventually reached the 50-run mark off just 47 balls, earning a spirited ovation from the crowd in Hyderabad.