At a promotional event recently, one of India’s most iconic cricketers and captains MS Dhoni was asked about his views on tactics like ‘Bazball‘ introduced by England in Test cricket since the appointment of Brendon McCullum as coach; and his reply was a masterclass for any future skippers or coaches.
England, who recently lost the Test series in Pakistan, try to play the red-ball format with an aggressive frame of mind in order to produce a result-oriented game and entertain the crowd.
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However, Dhoni felt it’s important to consider the strength of the players at your disposal before deciding any tactic and if executed, the players should be given time to adapt to it instead of expecting results from them right away.
Here’s what Dhoni said:
“You can give cricket any term you want to. What we have seen is that cricket has evolved. The way people are playing cricket is very different. What was considered a safe score in one-dayers (ODIs) is now felt as not safe even for 20 overs (T20Is).
“When you give something a term, it becomes much more interesting because then you start talking about it, start relating to it. But at the end of the day, what is it? It’s a way to play cricket. Some people want to play aggressive cricket, some people want to play authentic cricket. A lot of that depends on the kind of team you have got, whether they (players) can change the way they play their cricket. It’s something that is very important. If there is something that can be done, not everyone can do it.
“Let’s say somebody like (Jasprit) Bumrah, he can bowl six yorkers. Imagine somebody who is not able to do that but you still ask him. He may prove over a period of time, but he may end up giving a lot of runs until that point.
“So what is important is to realize the strength of your team, and according to that you decide which is the way you want to play your cricket, maybe you want to change but it takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight, like we will do this starting tomorrow. You need to give time to individuals because they have played maybe 10, 12, 15 years of cricket since they have started and they have a certain way of playing. So you need to give them that time to change.”