Remember when someone on the other side of the world could score a blistering hundred or open a children\u2019s hospital and the Poms would credit it to Bazball?<\/p>\n
If it could be linked back to everything from saving test cricket to sick kids – as England would make us believe – then making Bangladesh\u2019s boilover win in Darwin about Bazball was always gonna be a cinch.<\/p>\n
But this time around, it\u2019s not being singled out as the tenuous reason for another country\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nope, the only thing resonating about Bazball from the weekend is that the Tigers triumph reminded us again what a criminal waste it was.<\/p>\n For those unaware, the Marrara Miracle now means Bangladesh have the same amount of test wins on Aussie soil in the last 15 years as the English.<\/p>\n But other than being thrashed by a bunch of fringies in its warm up game prior to playing Australia, that\u2019s where the similarities between the two countries end.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the tourists not only produced an epic upset for the ages, they also provided a veritable four-day seminar on how to coolly sink our boys in local conditions- something England has historically had no idea about.<\/p>\n From ball one, the Tigers showed the Poms how it\u2019s done in Australia with a basic plan: play straight, bowl at the top of off stump, and stay off the cans in Noosa.<\/p>\n Better yet, they stuck to it for four relentless days, a period of mental application only matched by Brendon McCullum\u2019s England in the amount of self-preening they did.<\/p>\n Never mind Bangladesh achieved this generational triumph in footy season at a place closer to Timor than Sydney.<\/p>\n This heist not only rocked Australia, it should also plunge the Poms deep inside their own navels.<\/p>\n If Ben Stokes and company have any type of competitive sensibility, the Tigers nine-wicket win should have them proverbially kicking themselves with all the force of nine donkeys.<\/p>\n Imagine what could\u2019ve been achieved last summer if they\u2019d simply swallowed their egos and played with composure, ruthlessness and an attention span longer than a nursery rhyme?<\/p>\n Tanzid Hasan Tamim\u2019s heroic knock of 101 was poised and uncomplicated, an innings bed rocked on a tightened-up technique focused simply on playing either forward or back to defend or attack.<\/p>\n Yes, it was unsexy. But he looked like Neo-Bradman compared to Harry Brook, Bazball\u2019s million dollar baby who arrived full of hype last summer only to bat like his preparation consisted solely of winking at himself in the mirror as he left the pavilion.<\/p>\n As for the bowlers, not only did the Tigers hunt in packs by building pressure through dot balls, they further embarrassed England with their intelligent use of spinners, firstly by actually picking one, and even more esoteric, giving them overs.<\/p>\n But while it was a masterclass in fundamentals from the tourists, what should haunt England most is how Australia was exposed again as being riper for the taking than a Humpty Doo Cavendish.<\/p>\n Pat Cummins men looked very long in the tooth again, which is a concern considering this was the first of a stretch of test matches so long even the average fan might die of natural causes before it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n The bowlers looked underdone, the fielding was tired and the top order attacked the new ball with all the dangerous intent of a paper plate.<\/p>\n Add the fact they looked sorely underprepared and impotent, and you\u2019d have sworn it was England.<\/p>\n But what should chill England to its bones is that this is nothing new, because Cummins\u2019 side is so old that it was also old twelve months ago in the last Ashes.<\/p>\n Even when missing the skipper, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Usman Khawaja at various stages, Australia\u2019s squad could\u2019ve recalled Ricky Ponting and Jeff Thompson and still lowered the average age.<\/p>\n Yet the Poms rolled over to concede the Ashes in 11 days, all in the name of \u2018saving test cricket.\u2019<\/p>\n Yes, England\u2019s new regime of Stephen Fleming and Joe Root should see an end to the confounding hubris of Bazball, with the two conservatives sure to foster a culture of chewing bones in the dirt for days on end rather than chasing the fleeting high of hedonistic chaos ball.<\/p>\n But grittily pragmatic efforts like Bangladesh\u2019s will ensure Bazball remains a trend in their history as haunting and garish as the Ed Hardy boom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember when someone on the other side of the world could score a blistering hundred or open a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":["post-859397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}