Englands Bazball faces toughest task yet in India series

HYDERABAD, JAN 23: Englands "Bazball" style of attacking cricket faces its biggest challenge yet when they play an India side who have not lost a home Test series in more than a decade.
The five-Test series begins Thursday in Hyderabad, and although India will be without Virat Kohli for the first two matches because of personal reasons, they start as clear favourites.
But it was England who were the last team to beat India on home turf, when Alastair Cooks team won a four-match series 2-1.
Monty Panesar, who was part of that team, said the tourists had nothing to fear in a series where spin is expected to play a huge part.
"England have got every chance of winning Test matches out there," the former England spinner told talkSPORT."Theyve got to have a positive mindset. Ben Stokes himself, hes got to think, Can I make Bazball successful on turning pitches?
"Thats obviously going to be his biggest challenge."
Skipper Stokes and England prepared in Abu Dhabi instead of playing a tour match in India, which drew criticism in some quarters at home and raised fears England could be "undercooked".
Underlining the scale of the task facing England, Panesar added: "If he wins in India he will probably be known as one of the greatest captains ever to captain England, and one of the greatest captains ever in Test cricket."
India and England drew 2-2 in their last series meeting in England in 2021-22.
England coach Brendon McCullum has helped transform Englands red-ball fortunes since joining forces with Stokes in 2022, the pair taking over a team that had won just one of its previous 17 Tests.
England have since won 13 out of 18 Tests under the duo, playing an attacking brand of cricket dubbed "Bazball" in reference to former New Zealand captain McCullums nickname.
But there were the first murmurings of dissent towards the all-action approach in the 2-2 home Ashes draw with Australia last summer.
Veteran pace bowler James Anderson and senior batsman Joe Root are the only two surviving members of Englands last Test triumph in India.
The 41-year-old Anderson is 10 short of 700 Test wickets.
"Jimmy is superhuman. People have been anticipating he will retire for about seven years now and he keeps surprising people," former teammate Steven Finn said.
"He didn have a fantastic summer last year, but knowing him as a character, he wouldn be doing this (touring India) unless he felt he could make a difference."
Anderson will lead Englands bowling after the retirement of pace partner Stuart Broad following the Ashes, which were retained by Australia.    —AFP