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Michael Clarke has had enough of England talking about their supposedly revolutionary Bazball approach, claiming that Australia played just as aggressively two decades beforehand.
The approach from England has produced mixed results since Brendon McCullum took over as head coach, but failed to regain The Ashes on home soil in 2023 and have now given up a golden opportunity against India, falling to 2-1 down in the five-match series.
Despite their deficiencies – which were highlighted by Joe Root’s ugly dismissal in the third Test – England have remained upbeat and confident about their batting efforts, with opener Ben Duckett boldly claiming they’ve had an impact on other sides.
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”When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently,” he said last week.
“We saw it a bit in the summer and it’s quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket.”
The claims from Duckett, who scored an impressive century in Rajkot, haven’t sat well with the former Australian captain, who torched the English batter for his ignorance.
During an episode of ESPN’s Around The Wicket, Clarke raised concerns with Duckett’s comments and pointed out some of Australia’s own batting displays from yesteryear.
“He must have missed Australia for 20 years,” Clarke said.
“As a youngster, he must not know what Test cricket Australia played.
“Has he heard of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist? These guys used to smack it as good as everyone.
“Matthew Hayden just walked down the wicket and hit you straight over your head for a six. He didn’t have to play a ramp or a switch hit.
“Just because you play a reverse sweep or a switch hit or a ramp shot, that doesn’t mean you are batting aggressively either.
“I love the aggressive approach of England … [but] England is not the first team to play aggressive or bat positively.”
Clarke played alongside the likes of Hayden and Langer early in his career, before becoming the lynchpin of Australia’s batting line-up through the late-2000s and early-2010s, becoming the country’s sixth all-time leading Test runscorer.
The series between England and India will resume on Friday in Ranchi.
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