S8 Ep299: BAZBALL DECLARED DEAD AFTER AUSTRALIA'S ASHES VICTORY Colleague Jeremy Zakis. Australia's decisive 4-1 victory in the Ashes series is viewed as a failure of England's "Bazball" strategy, which Zakis declares "dead" for test cricket. The strategy, reliant

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 11 January 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

BAZBALL DECLARED DEAD AFTER AUSTRALIA'S ASHES VICTORY Colleague Jeremy Zakis. Australia'sdecisive 4-1 victory in the Ashes series is viewed as a failure of England's "Bazball" strategy, which Zakis declares "dead" for test cricket. The strategy, reliant on brute force and psychological warfare to score quickly, ultimately backfired by exhausting the English players over the duration of the five-day matches. The Australian team successfully "outfoxed" England by utilizing technical bowling expertise—varying pace and using sliders—rather than engaging in a contest of pure speed. While England boasted of hitting "sixes" (home runs) prior to the series, Australia's disciplined field placement and bowling variety prevented the English batters from getting "their eye in," dismantling the aggressive strategy completely. NUMBER 3
1928

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0:34.4	with Indeed. This is the Friends History Debating Society.
0:38.4	I'm John Batchel in New South.
0:40.0	I'm in Southern New England.
0:41.7	Jeremy Zakis is in New South Wales, where they're celebrating a little bit, not quite
0:47.2	completely over the top, as I expected.
0:49.4	But then again, this Ashes contest has been decided probably from the first test in Perth
0:56.5	when there was such a lopsided victory by the Australians
1:00.7	that they had food left over.
1:02.6	They had to figure out what to do with it.
1:04.1	It wasn't long.
1:04.8	The match didn't last long enough.
1:07.0	Now the test is over and there's no drama here. Australia won four to one. However, Jeremy
1:14.8	Basball, they're still talking about it. Why? And for all the wrong reasons, John,
1:21.4	basball is something the British have held onto as a strategy now for four and a half years and
1:26.9	it just doesn't work.
1:28.3	And the talk is not coming out of the Australian teams, not coming out of any other team
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