‘I‘m surprised it’s taken us so long to play this way’- James Anderson opens up on ‘Bazball’ ahead of Ashes 2023

Even though ‘Bazball’ was considered one of the reasons behind England’s defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the second Test of the recently concluded series, veteran English pacer James Anderson wants his teammates to continue their new-found attacking instincts in the Ashes, which is slated to begin on June 16.

Notably, the Ben Stokes-led team has become trailblazers in the longest format of the game, winning 10 out of their last 12 Test matches. They have played some sensational cricket and have defeated the likes of New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan, among others. Thus, ahead of the upcoming edition of The Ashes, Anderson looked quite confident and revealed that he indeed was surprised that England took such a long time to discover this.

“I‘m surprised it’s taken us so long to play this way, it just shows what can happen if you start pushing the boundaries a little, pushing the ceiling of what you can do,” Anderson was quoted as saying by Fox Sports.

Anderson analyses their recent defeat against New Zealand

Chasing a target of 258 runs in the fourth innings of the second Test against New Zealand, England played with flair but failed to hold on to the wickets that kept falling at regular intervals. Former skipper Joe Root smashed 95 runs off 113 deliveries and brought England close but in the end, the Three Lions lost the match by just one run.

Talking about the match, Anderson revealed that the loss still hurt him but that was not going to change their way of approaching Test cricket.

“I‘m not saying that result didn’t hurt as much, I was still fuming, but we enjoyed the fact we’d been part of such an amazing game. Everyone in the ground saw an amazing game of cricket, especially towards the end, and we appreciated that. So the next challenge will be the Ashes, especially for the guys that only play Test cricket because there‘s nothing bigger for us.

“Can we still play with that mentality and that freedom? Can we still take those risks? Can we take the options that risk us losing a game but maybe give us a chance of winning it? I think we will. I know Ben will and I know Brendon will. As long as the other players around keep buying in I think we‘ll be fine,” the 40-year-old stated.