Bazball is an informal cricketing term coined during the 2022 English cricket season. Bazball commonly refers to the style of play of the England national cricket team after the appointments of Brendon McCullum (whose nickname is 'Baz') as Test cricket head coach, and Ben Stokes as England Test cricket captain, by English cricket managing director Rob Key, in May 2022. The Bazball style and mindset is said to have an emphasis on taking positive decisions in attack and defence, whether batting or in the field. Origins Origins of the name The name "Bazball" was coined by ESPN Cricinfo UK editor Andrew Miller on an episode of the Switch Hit podcast. This came after McCullum’s appointment as England Test cricket coach, in May 2022. McCullum himself has voiced concern that the term can’t express the nuances of the England team’s approach or his management style. The name, however, has picked up increasing use across the wider cricketing media. Baz is derived from Brendon McCullum’s long standing nickname. As a player he was known for his aggressive stroke play, and as New Zealand captain had a highly-successful period when he used an attacking approach. This approach, Steve McMorran wrote in Associated Press, meant McCullum managed “to upend the Black Caps’ traditional conservative approach and underdog mindset.” McCullum's tenure as England's coach coincided with a turnaround in the fortunes of the England Test cricket team. The side had won only one Test match in the seventeen played prior to the hiring of Stokes and McCullum, with previous captain Joe Root “emotionally shattered after leading a struggling side through two difficult years which included multiple tours with testing Covid-enforced restrictions“. With no dramatic change to the players selected, England “against all odds” experienced success “their bowlers rose to the challenge, taking 20 wickets in six of the seven Test matches, while their batters scored at unprecedented pace. England won six of their seven Tests this summer, their second-most in a single season anywhere in the world.” Only once (in 2004) had they won more, and in the time since “they had not even matched six wins, let alone bettered it.” Origins of the style One aspect of Bazball is batters taking the skills learned and honed playing one-day cricket and transposing it into the longer form, and traditionally slower, Test match game. Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph wrote that the “path to Bazball