One of the key ingredients in the art of captaincy is to ask questions and challenge the opposing captain and team into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t normally do.

The Ashes series between Australia and England is two days into the 4th test, and I’ve been fascinated by how Ben Stokes, as England captain, has got into the minds of Australia.

Forget Bazball, it’s Ben Stokes.

Australia is playing unrecognisable Australian cricket.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/32/paul-ryan/blog/1304/ben-stokes-has-australia-playing-unrecognisable-australian-cricket

Unwatchable cricket last night from an Australian perspective.

The last day of test cricket has been coming for a while. Good insight Paul Ryan. We have been bullied and had a few opportunities of our own to move forward and take control.

What happened to playing to your strengths, no more playing ‘our’ way.
It’s frustrating to watch.
Even if England didn’t actually play ‘Bazball’ the sheer mention of the word has us rattled. They could block the crap out of the first ten overs of an innings, and we would be still in reactive mode and waiting for them to go all Bazball on us.

The last two nights have been some of the worst cricket I’ve ever seen from an Australian team. Full credit to the Poms but our tactics and captaincy has been embarrassing. 🫣