"Is It Really Different?" England Great Questions Core Of Bazball After Ashes Drubbing
Nasser Hussain sees little difference in England's performance compared to past tours, citing poor batting, bowling, and fielding.
All the talk around Bazball ahead of the Ashes 2025-26 series but England find themselves 0-3 behind, with Australia winning the first three matches of the series, that too pretty convincingly. England, since the appointment of Brendon McCullum as the team's head coach in Tests, have worked hard to carve out a style of play and mindset. While the intent is evident, the recent results do trigger questions of 'if their approach is actually different' than the previous England teams.
Speaking on the Ashes Daily episode of the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, England great Nasser Hussain struggled to find difference between the performances of Ben Stokes' team and those who toured Australia in the past.
"I quite like the fact they have done things differently over the last four years since the last Ashes drubbing," Hussain said on the podcast. "They've thought ahead. If you carry on doing what you have always done, you will get the same results, so they saw we need to do something different.
"But actually, if you've come here and looked at them in the last three-four weeks you'd have thought, 'is it really that different from any other England side?' They've not batted well, they've not bowled well, they've not caught well. Under key moments and pressure situations they've buckled," he added.
Hussain highlighted that barring the 2010-11 triumph under Andrew Strauss, England's tours to Australia have been quite similar, no matter the approach or philosophy. The fact that a great batter like Joe Root has now played 17 Tests in Australia without a single win, says everything about England's problems.
"That's why there was this rethink," Hussain added. "But actually, even after the massive rethink and left-field selections and 'we must have pace' and 'we must have batters that put bowlers under pressure', we've ended up getting exactly what we've had on virtually every other Ashes tour. That's what disappoints me, because I thought this time, with this opposition, it might have been slightly different. It has been no different."
Former England captain Michael Atherton echoed Hussain's sentiments and labelled England's current Ashes tour of Australia as disappointing as he has ever seen.
"We've been on a lot of Ashes tours - I think this is my 10th - and seen a few bad ones, a few whitewashes," Atherton said. "Actually, this has been as disappointing as any for me because I felt England had the tools to do the job here, or at least challenge, and that there were weaknesses or areas to exploit in the Australian team."
England Cricket Team
Australia Cricket Team