Mitchell Starc says England have 'gone back on their word' over Bazball ahead of 2025/26 Ashes series in Australia
Updated 09/10/2025 at 12:40 GMT+1
Mitchell Starc's influence on the last Ashes series down under was felt from the get-go, after castling Rory Burns with the very first ball to raucous acclaim at The Gabba. England's top order has changed significantly since then, and so has their brand of cricket - but, as Starc wonders, will Australian wickets "help or hinder" 'Bazball'? Watch the 2025/26 Ashes live on TNT Sports.
Can Bazball work down under? Starc says England have 'gone back on their word'
Video credit: TNT Sports
Mitchell Starc says England have had to "go back on their word" over 'Bazball', as the Australia quick opened up on the upcoming, hugely anticipated 2025/26 Ashes series.
England's Test side, under skipper Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, have gone in a new direction since the New Zealander's reign began in 2022.
They have pioneered an expansive style that has sought to bring more fans into Test cricket, loading their side with some of the game's most exciting players.
And it has delivered some of Test cricket's most memorable series, including the drawn 2023 Ashes in England, and last summer's five-Test series with India, which also ended in a draw.
Whilst this approach - labelled 'Bazball' for its genesis under McCullum - has sometimes felt more about the bigger picture, Starc feels that England have turned their focus, of late, more towards winning.
"It's an interesting one, I think they've obviously spoken about this brand of cricket for a number of years," Starc began.
"I guess if you look at the last six months - or certainly that last series against India - they've had to go back on their word a little bit and think about different ways to actually win the games and not just be this entertaining brand of cricket.
"I still think it's very conditions-based. If they're playing on flat wickets, it's a brand of cricket that's quite successful, you can score quickly and then you need the bowling attack to take 20 wickets.
"It'll be interesting to see what wickets we get in Australia, and whether that helps or hinders that approach."
Starc delivered one of the moments of the last Ashes down under in 2021/22, knocking over Rory Burns with the very first ball of the series at The Gabba.
It was all change, however, in the 2023 Ashes in England, with Zak Crawley hammering Pat Cummins for four off the first ball of that series.
Starc opened up on his view of Crawley's opening pairing with Ben Duckett, which has been so fundamental to England's evolution.
"They're obviously taking a pretty aggressive approach to opening the batting," Starc said.
"I played that last series against Duckett and Crawley, very different to the last series we had in Australia with Rory Burns opening the batting there.
"They're going to take an aggressive approach - they have done [already] - to their cricket, and I'm sure they will in Australia as well.
"Slightly different I think, we saw it in the last Ashes series in England - England playing a different brand of cricket brings a different approach from us, and it's going to look different at times.
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"That's not to say it's a different way to attack, it's just going to look different to traditional cricket.
"They've obviously created a fantastic partnership there for a number of years now, and it's another cog in their batting order that we're going to have to face."
Starc, now 35, has shown remarkable longevity in his career, given the notoriously arduous demands placed on fast bowlers in Test cricket.
He's done so alongside a fellow group of bowlers in Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who have made themselves legends of the game through their performances.
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Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon, Cummins
Image credit: Getty Images
The foursome, to date, have a massive 1568 Test wickets between them, with Starc 18th on the all-time list and Lyon - in 7th - needing just two more scalps to overtake Glenn McGrath.
The four bowlers have been a fixture of Ashes cricket since 2015, going unbeaten in the last four series.
Their collective appearance in the 2025/26 edition, however, looks in some doubt, with Cummins - according to media reports this week - struggling with a back injury, even if the Australia skipper was said to be "surprised" by those rumours.
Starc identified one key reason for the success and durability of this bowling group over the years.
"I guess you'd say it's pretty rare, but it's not lost on us how special that group is to have been around for as long as we have together, and played a lot of cricket together," Starc said.
"Whether it's the four of us, three of us - Scottie [Boland] has been around for a long time as well, so it's probably a group of five or six guys that have done the bulk of the work for the last little bit.
"I think the bond we have off the field plays a part in that and how we play our cricket.
"We work hard off the field, and it's probably helped us be around as long as we have. The fact that all four of us are from Sydney, and we spend a lot of time with Scottie as well, a lot of the time on the golf course or off the field around training, preparing.
"I think that's similar for the rest of our playing group, but certainly for the bowling group, that's helped us be around for as long as we have."
Watch and stream the 2025/26 Ashes series live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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