Dean Elgar is tired of talking about England’s ‘Bazball’ approach to Test cricket

• Dean Elgar was tired of talking about England’s new “Bazball” style of Test cricket.
• England has won all four Tests since Ben Stokes took over as captain and Brendon McCullum became a coach.
• South Africa’s fast bowlers can bring England down to size, says Elgar.

Dean Elgar, the captain of South Africa, said on Tuesday that he was tired of talking about England’s new swashbuckling “Bazball” style of Test cricket. This came the day before the first game of their series at Lord’s.

England has won all four Tests since Ben Stokes took over as captain and Brendon McCullum took over as coach.

McCullum’s nickname is the source of the term “Bazball,” which has come to mean an aggressive way to play the five-day game.

This 100% record includes a 3-0 series win over the world champions, New Zealand. Each time, England went after difficult targets.

The team led by Stokes then won the fifth Test against India at Edgbaston by seven wickets, even though they were given a target of 378, which seemed like a lot.

But South Africa, which is in first place in the World Test Championship, will give England a hard time in the three-game series that starts on Wednesday.

Elgar, who bats first, is sure that the Proteas’ fast bowlers can bring England down to size.

Elgar said at Lord’s on Tuesday, “With all due respect I am really not going to entertain that (Bazball) anymore,”

“We have chatted about it long and hard. I just want to crack on with the cricket. I think the game deserves that respect and mud-slinging is now a thing of the past for me.”

Elgar, who has been South Africa’s permanent red-ball captain for nine matches and won seven of them, knows that there will be times when the tourists are on the defensive, but he thinks they have the tools to fight back.

“I would like to think from a bowling point of view, our bowlers are big, tall, fast and strong buggers and we have ticked the boxes in regards to the spin department.”

Elgar tried to put England’s run-chases in context by saying that the conditions for batting in those games were “pretty nice.”

But he didn’t think the tourists’ job was too small.

“It might be hard work for us but this is what we are here to do,” he said. “We are not here to play soft-natured cricket. We want it hard and really tough and hopefully the results go our way.”

Last week, the second-string England Lions beat South Africa by an innings at Canterbury. South Africa gave up a huge 672 runs, but Elgar said he didn’t take anything from the warm-up game.

“If they come out playing like that in an official Test match and it goes pear-shaped, that will not look very good for England.”

Stokes gave his pre-match press conference at Lord’s before Elgar. He said he was glad to hear the South Africans talk about England’s new way of attacking.

He said, “The opposition seem to be doing a lot of talking about it (Bazball) at the moment — we don’t really speak about it that much,”

“We don’t dive into it too much, but I’m happy for Dean and the South Africa team to say they’re not interested and then keep talking about it,” the all-rounder added.

“We’ve got a style of play, they’ve got a style of play. At the end of the day it’s bat against ball and whoever plays best over a Test match is more than likely to win.”

England has only made one change to the team that beat India in the postponed Test last month. Ben Foakes, who had Covid-19 and was out of action for a while, has replaced Sam Billings as the wicketkeeper.

“Foakesy is the best wicketkeeper in the world,” said Stokes. “To have world-class quality behind the stumps is almost like a pillow, knowing that you’ve got someone with his skill level behind there.”

South Africa is still not sure if fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will be able to play. He has been having trouble with an ankle injury.

“I think KG (Rabada) is very close to being fully fit for this Test,” said Elgar. “He has had a really good few days so it is looking pretty good for us.”

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