LONDON: Captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum promised to persist with England’s new attacking approach to Test cricket, dubbed “Bazball”, despite being handed a heavy innings defeat on Friday in the first Test against South Africa.

England were emphatically thumped by South Africa on Friday.

Stokes, however, said there would be no change when the second Test starts at Old Trafford next Thursday.

“Absolutely not. You know, I look at captains before me and they were always going to get criticised at times about the way that they wanted to play, and that’s just part and parcel of the job,” he said.

“We know well that when we perform to the capabilities that we’re capable of, then we can go out and put on an incredible performance, like everybody’s seen in the four games before.

“This is absolutely not a wake-up call or anything like that. It was just unfortunate we’re unable to execute in the way that we want to play this week,” said Stokes.

McCullum echoed the captain, rejecting the suggestion that the England batsmen might have been too cavalier against a strong bowling line-up.

“I don’t think so. I think they were perhaps a touch timid. We approach the game with a clear mentality about the way we want to play and we want to be the best versions of ourselves. It’s not always going to work,” he said.

“As we said at the time, you’ve got to buckle up for the ride. It’s not nice at times like this but we’ll come back strong.”

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2022