Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin slammed “Bazball” style cricket after England’s batting line-up struggled in the third straight T20I, which was played at Rajkot.

Hosts India and the visitors England are battling in the five-match T20I series, which is also the beginning of the new era of England white-ball cricket under the head coach Brendon McCullum. McCullum has already shown his coaching skills for England's Test side, as the aggressive batting strategy is now known as “Bazball," which has hits and flops. 

In Test cricket, the “Bazball” strategy earned some good memories as the over-aggressive batting style has been called “braveness.”. However, it has also earned many negative criticisms.

IND vs ENG T20I series 2025: England batters failed to impress

In the five-match T20I series, hosts India comfortably won the series opener at Kolkata by seven wickets and thrillingly clinched another two-wicket win in the second game at Chennai. In both those T20Is, English batting failed massively. Poor shot selections were the major reasons for England’s defeat in both those T20Is. 

Rajkot T20I also experienced a similar story. While England were batting at 83/1 at one stage on a comfortable batting pitch, they later found themselves at 127/8. Opener Ben Duckett provided a positive start with his 51 off 28 balls, but the visitors still struggled in the first innings. Liam Livingstone’s late smashing 43 off 24 balls (one four and five sixes) somehow helped England to score 171/9 in 20 overs.

Due to the disciplined bowling from the English bowlers, they restricted the hosts to 145/9 as the visitors finally tasted a win in the away T20I series. However, their unpopular batting strategy still can’t be overlooked. 

See Also: Varun Chakravarthy creates world record after Rajkot T20I success

Ravichandran Ashwin called English batting reckless cricket 

Legendary Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from international cricket last December, called the present English batting strategy reckless cricket. He surely doesn’t feel confident with this batting performance from the English side. 

There is a very fine line between playing aggressive brand of cricket and reckless cricket. #INDvENG

— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) January 28, 2025