Ashes 2023: Australian cricket can learn a bit from it – Matthew Hayden on England’s aggressive approach

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden feels a few of Aussie batters can take a leaf out of England’s aggressive approach – Bazball. Hayden believes Usman Khawaja was a lot more defensive than he should have been, especially in the second innings.

Khawaja scored 141 runs off 321 balls in the first innings and took 197 balls to score 65 in the second essay when Australia was chasing 281. Furthermore, Cameron Green took 66 balls to score 28 runs in the second dig. Hayden believes both of these batters could have scored a bit more proactively for Australia as they were locking the runs.

On the other hand, England skipper Ben Stokes has confirmed his team will continue to play aggressively despite their narrow two-wicket loss.

Speaking to SENQ Breakfast, Matthew Hayden said, “They will only know one way to play now. Stokes really said it in his press conference as well. ‘Look, we didn’t get that result but that’s not going to stop the way that we want to go about our business.’ In fact, I reckon Australian cricket can learn a bit from it.”

“Even when I think back to Usman’s second innings – and this is being incredibly critical – but there was a time where he really needed to have a bit of BazBall himself and be inspired by it.”

Hayden added Green is well known for his pyrotechnics in the T20 format but he is still finding his feet in the Test form.

“He was really in a situation where he was locking down the run rate and occupying the crease and then you’ve got a young Cameron Green who was doing the same, trying to find his tempo in Test cricket.”

“I know and we’ve seen through his T20 performances that he can be an absolute rockstar in terms of the way that he plays.”

The former left-hander who was known to take the game to the opposition during his heydays, added Alex Carey and David Warner ticked the right boxes in the opening Test but Australia’s talismanic duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne needs to be a bit aggressive in the upcoming matches.

“Some of the senior players – Davey Warner a big tick, just his attitude, the way that he was in to the ball, good body language. Alex Carey had a fantastic game, Marnus Labuschagne at the moment does look like he’s really caught on the crease so he’s going to have some work to do on that BazBall mentality.”

“I think ‘Smudgey’ Smith is also a bit the same. He was fantastic through certain periods of the World Test Championship, but those two key players for us can get a little defensive.”

The second Ashes Test will be played at Lord’s, from June 28 onwards.