The highs and lows of Bazball

BySam Drury

BBC Sport journalist

The Bazball era is officially over.

Captain Ben Stokes called time on his England career during their series defeat by New Zealand in early July, while head coach Brendon McCullum was sacked on Sunday after seven defeats in nine Tests.

England have both thrilled and infuriated under the pair with a playing style and approach to the game that has divided fans and pundits alike.

No matter what you made of it, it has certainly been memorable and we've picked out some of the standout moments - good and bad - from the McCullum years...

Taking over a team that had won just one of its previous 17 Tests, McCullum and new captain Ben Stokes made the perfect start with victory over New Zealand at Lord's.

But it was the second Test of that series that first showed what this team was going to be about.

Set 299 to win in 72 overs on day five at Trent Bridge, England slipped to 93-4, before Jonny Bairstow and Stokes took them to 139-4 at tea and a draw appeared the best they could hope for.

Instead, the evening session saw Bairstow produce an astonishing display of hitting, smashing 14 fours and seven sixes as he brought up a 77-ball hundred.

That was just one ball slower than Gilbert Jessop's England Test record.

Bairstow, who made 136 from 92 balls, fell just before the end but Stokes remained and thumped the winning boundary to take the home side to victory with 22 overs to spare.

Less than a month on and England, having wrapped up a 3-0 win over New Zealand, were at it again.

Despite a James Anderson five-for and Bairstow's first-innings hundred, the hosts needed 378 to beat India in the rearranged fifth Test of the series started the previous summer.

England had never chased such a total before in Tests but started well with a century stand between Zak Crawley and Alex Lees.

However, two Jasprit Bumrah wickets and a run out saw 107-0 become 109-3 and that record target looked a long way off.

Step forward two of Yorkshire's finest. A magnificent unbroken stand of 269 between Joe Root and Bairstow got England over the line at a canter.

Root played a masterful knock to finish 142 not out, while Bairstow ended unbeaten on 114, his second ton of the match, as the pair scored at more than five-an-over to leave Bumrah and co in a daze.

A staggering victory that denied India a first Test series win in England since 2007 and showed just what Bazball could achieve at its best.

The first overseas challenge of the McCullum era and perhaps the most memorable.

Playing their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years, England claimed the most dramatic of victories late on day five in the fading light of Rawalpindi.

Their adventurous batting set it up as they powered a Test record 506-4 on day one, scoring a total of 921 runs in 136.5 overs at a rate of 6.73 across their two innings.

But it was the bowlers who put in the hard yards on the final day.

Pakistan were still in with a chance of chasing the 343 they needed to win at various points before the brilliance of Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who took four wickets apiece with the ball reverse-swinging, left them clinging on for a draw.

A stubborn last-wicket stand looked set to deny Stokes' men until Jack Leach got one to slide on and trap Naseem Shah lbw, sparking joyous scenes.

England would go on to sweep the series 3-0.

With 10 wins in 11 Tests, it seemed Bazball was unstoppable and after a crushing victory over New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, England were well on course to make it 11 from 12 in Wellington.

Root and Harry Brook made big hundreds as the tourists racked up 435-8 declared before rolling the Blacks Caps for 209 and enforcing the follow-on.

Kane Williamson's ton got New Zealand back into the game, though, and England were left needing 258 to win the series.

When Brook was run out without facing a ball, England were reeling at 80-5 but Root and Stokes calmly got them back on track.

Even when both fell in quick succession, Root five short of twin tons, Ben Foakes looked set to get them over the line.

However, he holed out with just seven needed to leave numbers 10 and 11, Leach and Anderson, to try and do the rest.

Anderson flayed a boundary to make it two to win but then gloved a Neil Wagner short ball down leg.

As the Kiwis claimed a stunning win, England were left to rue the nature of a number of dismissals in the chase - a theme that would become rather familiar.

Every Ashes series is highly anticipated but 2023 felt like another level. This was the first time Australia, recently crowned World Test champions, would come up against Bazball.

So often we have seen the first ball of a series set the tone and when Crawley drove Pat Cummins gloriously through the covers for four, a statement had been made.

The expressions of the home fans said it all, this was really happening. England really were going to take it to the Aussies this time.

Another fine century from Root had the hosts on top as the end of day one approached but instead of letting his star batter, on 118, continue, Stokes called time on the innings.

England were 393-8 but the captain wanted to move the game forward and have a crack at Australia before stumps.

The gamble didn't pay off, though, as Australia made it through to stumps unscathed and went on to win a thrilling first Test at Edgbaston by two wickets.

"I thought that was a time to pounce," Stokes said of the declaration.

But would another 20 or 30 have made the difference? We will never know...

A fiery second Test in that 2023 Ashes is remembered mainly for Bairstow's contentious stumping and the most un-Lord's-like of reactions from the fans in the aftermath.

Stokes came close to turning his fury into another unbelievable match-winning knock but such heroics may not have been required had England not thrown away a superb position in their first innings.

After the tourists put up 416, England were going well at 188-1 before, in their determination to attack, falling one after another into Australia's clearly signposted short-ball plan.

They ended up 325 all out when parity had seemed the least they would manage as day two approached its conclusion.

Australia won to go 2-0 up and while England, invigorated by the recalled Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, threatened the most spectacular of comebacks, it was not to be.

After victory at Headingley, England were well on their way to a series-levelling victory at Old Trafford before the rain intervened.

Only 30 overs were possible on day four with no play at all on day five, allowing Australia - five down and still 61 runs shy of making England bat again - to escape and retain the urn.

England's most impressive away win under McCullum? It might just be.

When Stokes' side gave up a 190-run first-innings deficit against an India side that had lost just three of their previous 46 home Tests, the game looked up.

Another series in India seemed lost before it had really begun.

However, Ollie Pope played the innings of his life - making 196 - as England battled back into the game.

India would still have backed themselves to knock off the 231 needed for victory but were stunned by left-arm spinner Tom Hartley's incredible 7-62.

There were nerves until the last but Hartley removed Mohammed Siraj to complete a 28-run win and spark hope that, for the first time in more than a decade, England might be able to compete in India.

It wasn't to be as the hosts came flying back to win the series 4-1.

The heavy defeat in India took the shine off Bazball somewhat but a return to Pakistan, the setting of one its finest hours, gave cause for optimism.

And the first Test in Multan was a reminder of what England could do.

Pakistan piled up 556 batting first on a flat surface but the visitors were unfazed, the batters putting behind nearly two days in the dirt to rack up countless records.

By the time England were done, they had posted 823-7, their fourth-highest ever and largest since 1938.

Root and Brook were together for 454 of those runs, the fourth-highest partnership in the history of the game.

Root made a career-best 262 while Brook went even further becoming the first England batter to score a triple century for 34 years, making 317 at nearly a run-a-ball.

England completed an innings win and Pakistan made sure not to offer a pitch quite so flat again, winning the next two on turning tracks to take the series.

An impressive series win in New Zealand and an expected victory over Zimbabwe did little to quell the increasing scepticism towards Bazball ahead of another marquee series.

England and India proceeded to play out a classic with the hosts 2-1 heading to The Oval for the fifth and final Test.

Another enthralling match ensued with the way it ended turning it into an all-timer.

For a while it looked like it would be Edgbaston all over again as, set a huge 374 to win, England were cruising.

Root and Brook were in the midst of another epic stand, which was approaching 200, with the home side 301-3.

Brook had made a scintillating hundred but tried one big shot too many to fall for 111.

Root completed his own supreme ton but with Jacob Bethell also dismissed the momentum had shifted and when the former skipper went for 105, it was back in the balance.

England needed 35 with four wickets remaining on day five but Jamie Smith went early, India pounced and despite the valiant efforts of Woakes, who came out to bat with his arm in a sling, Siraj proved the match-winner in a famous six-run India triumph.

So to perhaps the result that ended Bazball in the minds of many, even if not in reality: An Ashes trashing in Australia.

England walking off buoyant at the end of the first day in Perth seems a distant memory.

Despite being bowled out for 172, the visitors were set for a first-innings lead after reducing Australia to 123-9.

Even just after lunch on day two, it was all going well for England as they led by more than 100, just one wicket down.

Then it all went wrong.

A collapse from 65-1 to 88-6, Travis Head smashing them to all parts and defeat in two days.

Australia needed slightly longer to finish them off in the day-nighter in Brisbane but still won comfortably, and while there was a little more fight late on in Adelaide, it came too late and the Ashes dream was over.

All this against an Australia side missing Pat Cummins for the first two Test (and able to rest for the last two), Josh Hazlewood for the entire series and Steve Smith for the third.

Victory in Melbourne, a first in Australia for 15 years, provided a consolation of sorts.

McCullum was given another chance but a 2-1 series defeat against New Zealand to start the home summer of 2026 saw him sacked by England.