Root plays Boreball, an innings of class but it doesn’t hit the spot for Bazball addicts
It’s 5:15am. My alarm rings out, I scramble to turn it off. Check England vs India score. ENG currently 67-3. *Sigh* Phone off, roll back to sleep.
It’s 6:45am. 2nd alarm call of the days rings out. I repeat the same as above. ENG 118-5. *Sigh* Phone off, roll back to sleep.
It’s 7:30am. 3rd and final alarm of the morning rings out. But this time work dictates that I actually have to get out of bed. I pop the cricket on my phone as I get ready. Joe Root and Ben Foakes are at the crease going at a snails pace in this Bazball era (150-5). No shots in anger, with forward defences the main weapons of choice.
As I head out for work at 8:20am, Root has just crawled to 50 off over 100 balls. Alistair Cook in the TNT studio was purring, proper attritional cricket was back. As I painfully listened to TalkSport on drive work- please bring back TMS, please! What stuck out in my mind was just how flat it was, aside from Ben Foakes lazily clipping a ball straight to an Indian fielder, not a lot was happening- this isn’t Bazball!
One advantage of Root spending nearly 5 hours at the crease , is the fact that I could actually watch him cover drive his way his 31st test hundred 100: ‘class is permanent’, ‘can’t keep good players down for long blah blah blah’, were the choices from the commentary team. But it really was take your pick of which cliche you would like to use today.
For me though, if I’m honest, it didn’t really hit the spot. Bazball has become a class A drug and I think I’ve become addicted. 2 years ago, a couple of guys called Ben and Brendon offered me something which at the time was new, exciting and naughty. I took it and liked the feeling it gave me: Ben Duckett’s willow on ball, Zak Crawley’s gangley arms reaching, Rootscoops, Stokes tail wagging and bucket hats. Unfortunately, like all drugs there are plenty of lows; Ben Duckett nicking behind, slumps splattered and more collapses than a game of Jenga with a three year old. The pill that Brendon of Ben gives you two of these options and each time you take it, you go in chasing that high.
However, today was a flash back to the days of boring sobriety and as England meandered to 302-7 at the close, it was just a late Robinson slog for six which made me twitch…inject some more of that in my veins!
The first sign of addiction is admitting that you have a problem. I think I’m in need of Bazball rehab…but come on, just one more for old times sakes…see you tomorrow.