HYDERABAD: There was Joe Root's unbeaten century in a chase of 279 versus New Zealand in the early days. There was that day-night Test in New Zealand when their bowlers embraced the twilight, twice. There was hunting down India's 378 in the rearranged fifth Test. There was the craziness of scoring 500 inside a day before the team collectively willed themselves to win in Rawalpindi on a highway of a strip. There was Chris Woakes and Mark Wood engineering a nervy unbeaten stand to halve the deficit in last year's Ashes... suffice to say Ben Stokes already had quite the catalog of wins as Test captain since taking over a broken, lifeless and empty outfit in 2022.
But nothing has quite matched what they have managed to do over the last four days in Hyderabad. Even before they had come to these shores, Bazball, many had maintained, wouldn't work in India. They had no chance against two of the ATGs, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin. It definitely wouldn't work on Indian pitches. Those noises were exacerbated after the hosts had piled on a first-innings lead of 190. 'Told you so' was the prevailing sentiment.
So it wasn't a surprise when Ben Stokes, who has now led England to a win in 14 of 18 Tests since becoming a full-time captain, hailed this win as the best of his tenure.
“This is definitely the No. 1 win since I have been captain,” Stokes said in the post-match press conference. “Considering where we are and who we were playing against, the position we found ourselves going into our second innings, I feel this is our best since I’ve been captain; our greatest triumph.”
Two of the main catalysts of the victory were Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley. One of them made a match-shifting 198 while the latter, a debutant, entered into the record books with a seven-fer.
To really get to the heart of Bazball, it's important to know where Pope got his freedom from and how Hartley turned it around after a baptism of fire on the opening day (his first ball went for six and he finished with figures of none for 63 after nine overs).
At its heart, it's about injecting enough belief into people and backing them without going back on words already said. This may sound like something that belongs in the Ted Lasso universe but there is no place for crosstalk or muddled thinking. It's all about keeping the faith and the management's unwavering commitment to the existing ethos.
The key to that is Stokes. What he did with Hartley is a case in point. He gave him the new ball on the third session of the first day when Joe Root was seemingly a better option as the off-spinner would take the ball away from Yashasvi Jaiswal. He persisted with the 24-year-old even after he was being carted around.
Stokes' decision to stick with the young turk was rewarded when Hartley, who grew into the match as it wore on, found the length to bowl on the surface. Stokes explained it. "I committed to the decision, obviously, after giving the new ball to Tom that this was going to be a long spell whatever happened," the captain explained. "That was his first spell in Tests against a quality team who play spin incredibly well. So I committed to that but whether or not that’s a reason he’s walked away with 9 wickets, who can answer that? But think it goes back to what I said... giving belief... when they believe in themselves, it’s amazing what can happen.
"The things that you say, the messages which you deliver are obviously only words until you put them into action. But it's amazing what you can get out of individuals if you walk the walk after talking the talk."
Again, this might appear as words from the Ted Lasso universe but Stokes' cricketing acumen was seen at other times as well. He gave Rehan Ahmed a long spell in the first innings. When they were defending a total in the fourth innings, he hooked Rehan after one solitary over. The teenage leg-spinner had conceded three fours and it was a critical juncture in the game. It is not a comparable situation because a leggie may find it harder to control. Also, he was so desperate for his young spinners to get wickets, Stokes burned all three reviews by the 13th over in the first innings. In the second, he was far more measured, and eschewed the prospect of sending multiple decisions upstairs. Captaincy 101.
A lot of captains and coaches the world over talk about doing the right things, backing players without caveats, and promising to not go back on their words. However, Stokes is a living, breathing embodiment of that principle. Unlike politicians who forget about their promises once the results are in, he is there with his charges all the way, for good and bad.
Nowhere else is this clearer than in Ollie Pope's transformation from a promising but inconsistent batter to being an important part of the Bazball armory. From the time he broke into the set-up in 2018 till the time Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum came on board, he had averaged 28.6, with just one 100 in 23 matches. Since then, he has averaged 46.4 with four 100s in 16 games.
Pope addressed this in the press conference on Sunday. "In the past, I have generally been someone who needs a couple of knocks to start feeling my best but credit to Baz and Stokesy for the way we've gone about this whole week in general, I brushed that first innings behind me pretty quickly (1 off 11)," he said.
That the 26-year-old is now part of the leadership group has also contributed to this change. "It's good to immerse yourself in what you're doing," he said. "Rather than just standing about in the field thinking about my forward defence, which I probably did three or four years ago, actually thinking about plans and stuff is better. there's no need to think too much about the batting." In that previous tour to India in 2021, Pope struggled to hit the ball off the square. In Hyderabad, he played an innings that will form part of their highlights reel for the next decade.
A big aspect of that change? No repercussions for failures (another phrase from the Ted Lasso world) as long as you hold your end of the deal. Pope explained. "The guys we are facing are very skilled bowlers," he said. "You can pretty much know where each ball is going to land and if you try to defend each one, there is probably more chance to get out than if you play a cross-bat shot.
"We practice those shots enough. If you get out for none playing a reverse sweep, you are not going to get a load of chat in the changing room. You can go and commit to it."
In management lingo, it's said that the easier aspect is to get the buy-in from the players. The bigger challenge is to stay on message, ride the thin and thick together and continue to grow.
Stokes was mindful of this. Before the start of this series, he gathered his troops and challenged them to continue their growth.
"I addressed the team about how great two years we have had and what we have to do for the next two years. How we are going to keep giving ourselves the best opportunity to keep alive our success? We keep talking about the modes of operation or the mindsets around certain things, and probably just going to stand still [on what we've done]," he said.
"Other teams might catch us, but one thing I asked for this series and the next series coming up is making sure we stay completely committed to our process. Without attaching emotion to the outcome because that is one thing we have not done. When you are part of a successful team for two years like we have been, you can sometimes start to think about the result, think about the outcome. But that is not what we have done over the last two years. So that is a responsibility on myself to stay committed to how I have led the team for the last two years."
He has of course done it before as well. When the Stokes-MCullum axis was in its embryonic days, the former had watched a movie based on Elvis. He was so inspired by it he asked his players to become rockstars.
They are on that path.
If they can stay on point for at least two of the remaining four games in India, Bazball will have reached its apogee.
