Logo

Logo

Joe Root

Bazball way

Importantly, though, it was only England's third defeat of the Bazball regime, which meant that you couldn’t really dip your pain in acid and write disdainfully of Brendon McCullum, the coach who preaches hyper-aggressive Test cricket or Ben Stokes, the captain who made himself conspicuous with his rash first-day declaration.

Proteas’ plight

The 3- 1 margin, truth to tell, takes on a whole new meaning when you reckon with the fact that England, for much of their time on the tour, missed some of their front-rank cricketers because of a viral infection which going by reliable accounts had reporters from London discussing, even if somewhat fancifully, which ones among them stood a chance of being invited to join the squad, just in case.