Photo: AFP
Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting praised England captain Ben Stokes’ proactive approach to captaincy in the first Test of the Ashes at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
Stokes tried all sorts of experimental field placings and bowling tactics during Australia’s first innings in Birmingham, with a highly-unusual field helping remove centurion Usman Khawaja on day three.
The England captain had most of his fielders in front of the wicket and pacer Oliie Robinson responded to the field by bowling a yorker to remove Khawaja, who looked to play behind the wicket.
Having set up an on-side field for a couple of deliveries in an unusual wall formation, captain Ben Stokes opted to match it on the off-side, with six catchers in front of Khawaja in a field that some have described as the “Brumbrella”.
The Ben Stokes era enriched the modern lexicon of cricket further. After Bazball, Bazbait, Nighthawk, a new word was coined—the Brumbrella. Originally used to signify a large pitch cover to protect the ground, it can be used to describe the absurd field Stokes and Ollie Robinson set to end the 321-ball resistance of Khawaja.
“It’s hard to keep up with them all, he’s making a change almost every ball, which is great, it’s proactive captaincy. He’s always trying to move the game forward, he’s looking at any little way that he possibly can to pick up a wicket and change the momentum of the game,” Ponting said.
“With Khawaja’s innings, I’d hate to try and count how many times he changed the field for him and how many bowling changes and tactical changes he made to try and get Khawaja out – and then it finally worked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a field like that in Test cricket before. There was just an umbrella of fielders around in front of the batsman’s face. And it was all about bowling a couple of slower balls and being able to bowl a yorker. And sure enough, Khawaja used his feet, gave himself some room, gave up his stumps, and the yorker knocked his off stump out of the ground.
“It’s fantastic stuff. It’s really refreshing for the Test game to see a team play this way and a captain happy to try everything he possibly can,” he added.
There were speculations before the series if Stokes will play a similar Bazball style of cricket or if will there be a change in approach. “There was a lot of chat around ‘will Bazball stand up? Are they going to be courageous enough to play that way against the Australians?’,” Ponting said.
“Well, I think that question has been answered for us,” he noted.
“It’s certainly there, the way that they want to play, this bold new approach to Test match cricket, trying to make bold decisions at any stage in the game where they can.
