NASSER HUSSAIN: Bazball is not all bish, bash, bosh… England are also great at soaking up pressure

If I know Australian cricketers who have seen England’s Bazball style, they will ask, ‘Yeah, but can you do it against us, the newly crowned world Test champions.’

Well, whatever the answer to that question is, these Ashes will be very much on display, and if they pull it off, and Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow hit the ball in all parts over the next few days, imagine for that Edgbaston’s infamous Eric Hollies Stand. It will go ballistic.

If they don’t, it will still be fun and Stokes and Brendon McCullum will be true to their word as world cricket’s greatest entertainers.

Of course, a failure will fuel the arguments of those who said this style of play would only work against certain sides and that England was overhyped, but one thing is for sure – under the current leadership team they will not step back. .

At the same time, they like to play the Bazball term down because despite scoring five over, the highest run rate in the history of the game, it’s not just about hitting off every pitch.

Brendon McCullum (pictured) is likely to deliver another entertaining performance for England

Look at Bairstow last summer, he epitomized the method of old-school hitting and taking pressure when he faced New Zealand at Trent Bridge. Or Stokes himself with a hundred against South Africa at Old Trafford.

What Stokes, McCullum and team director Rob Key want on their England side is people who can take pressure, but also put pressure on the opposition.

There will be times in the five Tests when England have to get involved and what fascinates me is whether Stokes could still play the smart sort of innings he played at Headingley in 2019. In fact, would he still want to?

That unbeaten 135 is one of the best innings I’ve seen, but if he were put in exactly the same situation would he bat as he did on the third night when he scored a pair of runs off 50 balls to win the fourth- day heroics? Playing that way helped England win the game.

How will Joe Root play? Root is England’s world-class batsman. Should he therefore play the reverse scoop? Or should he just be the glue, allowing the others to entertain while playing in the manner of Australian Steve Smith or Marnus Labuschagne?

Yeah, when he flips Pat Cummins for six, we’ll all be like, “Wow, this is Bazball.” But if he gets caught in the rope, everyone will ask, “Should he do that?”

The gritty of it all is what makes this Ashes series so intriguing. It’s the unknown quantity. Things will not be boring.

England have welcomed back Moeen Ali for the crunch series against Australia this summer

Zac Crawley (left) and Jimmy Anderson took part in light training on the eve of the first test

Selection cannot have been black and white either, and I fell victim to this in the recent Test match between England and Ireland at Lord’s.

Watching Stuart Broad bowl the way he did in the first innings of that match – knowing his record against Australia and David Warner in particular, and his ability to live up to the big occasion – it felt like you wish he had the went into battle on the first morning of an asbestos.

But when the field went a bit flat in the second innings, and Josh Tongue, who balanced the side with some extra pace, took five wickets, it reminded me of the spread of qualities of England’s 2005 bowling attack.

When the ball swung Matthew Hoggard was in his element, when it didn’t you could rely on Steve Harmison’s fast pace, and when the bounce got lower there was Simon Jones turning it around – ideally that’s the kind balanced attack that you want .

There are questions about how Joe Root (center) will be used during the Ashes

So by that second innings against Ireland, I had come to the conclusion that it wasn’t a good England playing exclusively with sead and swing bowlers. They needed some X-Factor – someone to try Travis Head.

I suppose for now it’s a good sign that Stokes’ knee is good enough to leave Mark Wood out. It suggests that the Captain himself will fill the role of an enforcer, targeting short things in Head’s ribs.

And maybe that’s why they went for selections this way. They may need Wood’s extra pace later in the series.

Had they gone for Wood’s ability to hit 90 miles per hour for this first game, they would have sacrificed everything a character like Broad brings.

It is difficult. What you lose on one you gain on the other and vice versa, but if Warner cut off today when Broad – the player who had such a hold on the Australian in the series four years ago – wasn’t playing then what would we participation?

Harry Brook (left) could become a staple of the Ashes series in the coming month

Warner is a protagonist for them, he sets the tone, can quickly take over a game from you and silence the entire audience. He couldn’t be out 70 before lunch and provide a platform for the world’s top three hitters in Labuschagne, Smith and Head.

Personally, I would have gone for Wood to add a point of difference on a flat field, but I see it was a 50-50 call and understand why they went the way they did.

Let’s face it, if you were going for three 83 mph right arm bowlers, these would be the three.

In Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson you talk about three highly skilled seamstresses – two masters and one extraordinarily worthy apprentice.