'Aur yeh bazball ki hawa nikalte hue' - Fans react as frustrated expressions of England head coach Brendon McCullum go viral in photos

England have adopted a strategy of playing aggressive Cricket in the longest format and have popularly dubbed it ‘Bazball’. The name is, of course, after the current head coach of England, Brendon McCullum, or ‘Bazz’. While the strategy had been largely successful for the English team, it has not been able to produce results against the WTC Champions, Australia. The current Ashes 2023 series has been a reality check for McCullum and his boys.

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As such, it is natural for the dugout to not be in the jolliest of moods. Something similar was on display during Day 4 of the second Test of Ashes 2023. Head coach Brendon McCullum looked clearly frustrated with his team’s performance and viral photos of his expression have flooded social media with fans and trolls reacting plentifully to what has been jointly considered ‘Meme-material.’

England need 257 runs to win the second Test and level the series

Talking of how Bazball has fared against the World Champions, England made a bold call of declaring the innings on the first day of the first Test of Ashes 2023 for a score of less than 400. Following this, a massive showdown on the final day saw the Aussies led by Pat Cummins steal a two-wicket win. Although it was a close encounter, the English seemed unbothered and called their declaration decision a correct one.

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Following this, the second Test is seemingly at a similar turn. After suffering a batting collapse and conceding 91-run first innings lead, the English have a target of 371 runs to chase in the final innings. Currently, England have secured an overnight score of 114/4 and need 257 more runs to win the game on Day 5. However, it would not be a cakewalk against the Australian bowling attack. The visitors will see this as an opportunity to exert pressure and scalp a few quick wickets on the day. To sum it up, the impact of Bazball has been far from ideal against the mighty Aussies and the frustration is clearly visible on McCullum’s face.

Here’s how fans reacted:

The moment you realize the opponent isn't a minnow like Pakistan!

— Sathish Kumar (@Sathish12369) July 1, 2023

This is test cricket Bro, not T20 ☕😂

BazzBall now exposed Fully ☕😂

— Anonymous (@agent5168) July 1, 2023

His own balls are lost somewhere… Kindly return to NZ and play golf there. Test cricket is not for you.

— Gaurav singh (@loggerheads24) July 1, 2023

All the over hyped Bazball is gone after thrashing Pakistan😂😅 😂

— 𝓡𝓪𝓱𝓾𝓵 𝓡𝓪𝓴𝓱𝓸𝓭𝓲𝔂𝓪7 (@rahulmeena6604) July 1, 2023

Wrong bazball downloaded 🙃

— 𝙃 シ 🕊️ (@cricket__hub) July 1, 2023

Not true. His face is like this even when they were winning

— Atif (@Nd1691) July 2, 2023

Result is secondary but atleast u have to try. We love him just because of his fearless approach. ❤❤

— svmanth.K.akhil (@htnamvsmi) July 2, 2023

Bazball failed and it had to fail !!

— Saurabh Tripathi 🇮🇳 (@SaurabhCinemuse) July 1, 2023