LONDON: England’s aggressive approach to Test cricket under skipper Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum has paid rich dividends at home and batsman Joe Root is keen to see how it fares abroad in different conditions.

Casting aside caution and taking the game to the bowlers in an approach that has been dubbed Bazball, England have chased down intimidating targets with fearless batting to win six of their last seven tests, all on home soil.

They next visit Pakistan for a three-Test series in December followed by two tests in New Zealand in February and Root told Sky Sports he hoped England would go from strength to strength with their attacking brand of cricket.

“The challenge for us now is to keep going for it, keep trying to explore new areas in the format and see how far we can take it,” he said.

“You feel like you can win games from anywhere when you’re playing like this. I think that’s the most exciting thing and makes us such a dangerous team to play against.

“It would be really exciting to try and do it in different conditions and see where we go this winter, where we go abroad onto different surfaces in different parts of the world.”

Root was replaced by Stokes as Test captain but he still wants to help mentor the younger players in the side.

“I’m really excited just to get my teeth into trying to score as many runs as I can for Ben and the team and see where we can get to as a side,” he added.

“As an experienced player in the team I’ve still got a role in leading in a different capacity, helping with some of the younger batters and younger guys and hopefully that will benefit us as well.”

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2022