England’s Bazballers have left our shores, having lost the Ashes series and with their playing code widely panned. But was it the code or the execution that was responsible for England’s defeat?

Bazball’s name was a journalistic invention, a catchy term for a philosophy of play brought to England’s Test team by new coach Brendon (‘Baz’) McCullum in 2022. It stood for playing with positive intent with bat and ball, a counter to the careful conservatism that is never far from the surface of English cricket.

At the time of McCullum’s arrival, England had won just one of their previous 17 Tests. They had become stale, lacking imagination, playing by rote with little sense of what more they might achieve by thinking differently about the game. McCullum brought the different way.

But what, exactly, is Bazball? Above all it is about playing positively. It is not just about scoring at a fast clip; it is also about taking wickets by prioritising attack over saving runs. It is about eschewing draws, at least until there is no other live option. But it is not about profligacy with the ball in the face of opponents’ aggression, any more than it requires attacking with the bat at all costs and uncaring of risks. Test cricket often requires careful, considered batting to retrieve difficult situations, and bowling to restrict the other side’s scoring. It’s not just all bash with the bat. Even T20 is not only about that.

The new approach was refreshing, and it was welcomed. In three home Tests against New Zealand in 2022, England chased down three fourth-innings targets of close to 300, something thought previously to be between difficult and impossible. They beat South Africa too, and then went to Pakistan to record an impressive 3-0 series result. In one of the Tests there they scored more than 500 runs in a day at above six per over, an achievement unparalleled in English Test history.

In the six months between June and December 2022, England won eight Tests, lost just one and significantly drew none. The team was playing with verve and fearlessness, scoring quickly and knocking over opponents with the ball. Being positive was working. Nobody was critical.

But England came back to earth. Between February 2023 and January 2026 they won 17 Tests (including two against minnows Ireland and Zimbabwe) and lost the same number. In marquee series against Australia and India they won six and lost 12 and won not a single series in four.

Then disaster then struck with the loss of the first three Tests of the 2025-26 Ashes series. Promising positions were thrown away carelessly, and pressure was not kept on Australia. England slumped to seventh among the nations contesting cricket’s World Test Championship, above only Bangladesh and the West Indies.

The view quickly formed in Australia that Bazball was a failure. Past players in particular piled on. A bad dismissal by Jamie Smith at Adelaide, driving Mitchell Starc when not to the pitch of the ball and skying a catch to mid-on, was, said Darren Lehmann, “just a Bazball dismissal.” There were several other dismissals that smacked of carelessness. Bazball was deemed “officially dead” by Simon Katich.

The approach, the critics said, was devil-may-care, irresponsible, mindless, unfit for the Test arena.

The real truth was rather different. The English played poorly at Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. They were careless and seemed to pay little heed to important detail. They seemed entranced by their early successes with Bazball, as shown by the hubristic statement by one of their batters that they could chase “anything” in the last innings of a Test. They also seemed unconcerned about runs being given away: the part-time spin of Will Jacks went for more than five and a half per over at Adelaide. Those runs had to be won back, and they weren’t. They became much of the difference between the two sides in that game.

In Australia, England did not implement Bazball effectively, or indeed anything else. Too many batters made mindless attacking shots (like driving when not to the pitch), the bowlers in the main lacked discipline in lines and lengths, and the catching was much less sure than Australia’s. Philosophy notwithstanding, England played poorly through Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.

They won something of a lottery match on a tricky pitch at the MCG but then lost again at Sydney. The reaction of batters on both sides to challenging conditions also came under scrutiny; it was obvious at Melbourne that they were more attuned to attack than to defence. ‘Batting time’ and surviving against a combination of seam and bounce seemed to have become a dying art.

The particulars of the MCG Test aside, though, England in this series was outplayed. The problems were of execution more than strategy. Bazball is about being positive, not foolhardy or careless, a point lost on some critics. Ben Duckett, for example, found in Australia his inability to leave balls outside his off stump became a fatal flaw, and the talented Harry Brook was dismissed several times attacking unwisely. Captain Ben Stokes fought hard with bat and ball and knew when to bat defensively, which his fellows too often did not.

Meanwhile Australia was efficient in pretty much everything, no less positive than England in objectives and superior in execution. Bazball, meaning taking a positive approach and “putting pressure back on the opposition”, is commendable, but it must be implemented with sense and skill.

No doubt it helps if teams prepare well off the field and are wary of the demon drink.