Reports of Bazball’s death were greatly exaggerated, it seems.
With his team teetering at 3-8 in just the fifth over on a chaotic day one at the MCG, Harry Brook might have been expected to err on the side of caution as he strode to the crease.
Instead, the England vice captain wildly charged Mitchell Starc on his very first ball to the gasps of pretty much everyone.
Brook missed—and luckily for England so did the ball as it passed safely by the flailing batsman’s stumps.
“Not particularly relaxing viewing at the minute,” Stuart Broad commented wryly on Channel 7.
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Twenty minutes later Joe Root had been dismissed for a 15-ball duck, but Brook was still there, still swinging, en route to a haphazard 41 that proved to be top score for either side on a wild Boxing Day that saw 20 wickets fall in just 77 overs.
Former Australian fast bowler Damian Fleming described it simply as a ‘bizarre England innings’.
By stumps on day one, Australia had been rolled for 152, England had been skittled for 110 and home town hero Scott Boland was being feted by 93,442 fans in the middle of the MCG, as he opened the batting in Australia’s second innings.
A fittingly crazy end to one of the craziest Boxing Days in Test history.