Alastair Cook attributed India’s cautious approach at the tail-end of their batting innings to “the fear of Bazball”, with England needing a record run-chase to claim a 2-0 Test series lead.

India built up a dominant position across the first three days, taking a 143-run lead before making their way to 211-4, with a Shubman Gill century helping to stretch the target beyond 350. However, from that point, India collapsed. Ben Stokes was praised for his captaincy in tempting Gill into a reverse-sweep, and from there India lost their last six wickets for 44 runs.

The approach during Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah’s partnership was particularly notable. The pair added 26 runs in 12 overs as India crawled along, with Ashwin making 29 off 61 and Bumrah a 26-ball duck. England had singles on offer, and brought the field up to keep Ashwin on strike, but rarely was an aggressive stroke attempted.

Cook, speaking on TNT Sports’ coverage of the series, attributed this to England’s success when chasing under the stewardship of Stokes and Brendon McCullum. Since the start of their joint tenure, England have completed five chases in excess of 250, and also been bowled out for 256 chasing 258 against New Zealand, and 327 chasing 371 against Australia.

Most notably, they pulled off a national record pursuit of 378 against India at Edgbaston in 2022 in nonchalant fashion, centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow sealing victory by seven wickets inside 80 overs to secure a 2-2 draw in the series postponed from the previous year. Aside from New Zealand’s one-run win following on, each of those games has featured a sub-par third-innings effort.

“You’re almost seeing a little bit of the fear of Bazball,” Cook said. “They’re 400 runs ahead, but in the last half an hour they’ve had Ashwin blocking it almost as if every run were so important. And you think if it were against any other side, side’s I’ve led before and all that, this Indian side would be trying to crash this ball around the park with the tail and get bowling. There’s just something about this side which has caused a bit of chaos in the opposition, and India are so wary of this. The chances of England chasing 400 in the subcontinent in the fourth innings are very very low, but they just know that if Crawley gets going, Stokes gets going, Root gets going, it’s happened to them in the past.”

Cook also speculated that India’s poor form, with no wins at home in their last three Tests, might be playing a role. “It may also be a little bit of confidence in this India side, they’re not playing their best cricket, so they’re just giving themselves that extra bit of protection.”

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