“Scoring five hundred runs in a day’s Test play? No chance, never in a hundred years, no way!” the view of Kent Coach Matt Walker on the amazing spectacle that has become the England Test team – namely “Baz ball” …

Our pre-season conversation with the Kent coach ended with a discussion on what a massive transformation the last six months have been at the top level, and how this new attitude could filter down into County Cricket…

Walker admitted his enjoyment in watching from a distance: “I think it’s been incredible to watch and what England are doing at the moment is revolutionary, let’s be honest!”

“It’s creating a new era of Test Cricket!” he told us.

“Will other sides follow? We’ll wait and see, but the whole principal is very interesting – the no fear cricket, the attitude that you have no interest in drawing games of cricket and from there off they go.”

“It’s determination and a complete mindset change and it’s just about winning – it’s so refreshing to watch and of course it will have an impact in County Cricket.”

“The players are talking about it all the time on how it’s going to impact on our game and what it’s going to mean for them if they want to play for England.”

“And of course I’ve got to be balanced in what I do and what the coaching staff do and what our philosophy is, as we need to produce as we always do, a balance.”

“England have the very best players at their disposal and they have some of the biggest players in the world, let along the country, who can play that style of cricket.”

“You have to make sure that your players are able to do what they do very well, rather than do what they are watching on TV which is maybe not quite their game.”

“Having said that, it does as a coach, make me think. You’re always looking as a coach to take the game on and looking to try to improve players and get them to play for England and if that style of play is going to be a requirement then of course you want to be able to encourage players to express themselves and improve in that way of playing.”

“I keep going back to the word balance and making sure that the players are doing and playing their game rather than somebody else’s game.”

“It will be something that we talk about amongst the group as to what we want to do. I think that having heard the things they do with England, there are some things that we can take from it – the whole element of having fun!”

“I’m not taking pressure off, go out and expressing yourself, everything is positive, everything they’re talking about is positive. There’s no taking a backward step.”

“Of course County Cricket is different to Test Cricket – you have a three or four match series” Walker said, “it doesn’t necessarily matter if you lose a match but of course you want to win every series, but for us we’ve got to look at the broader picture of trying to win the title and every game is different.”

“Conditions may be different; situations may be different – we’ve got to be a little bit more reflective, and we will respect what comes our way. Playing Test Cricket can sometime lend itself with that complete free form of playing, without too much consequence.”

“I think what’s happened is that win or lose, England are winning the public over by their play which is a massive help as we know, Test Cricket isn’t being watched as much, as people want exciting cricket.”

“But I think that everyone now is sitting up and taking notice of Test cricket, so they are doing something incredible for the game. We’ve got to make sure what we’re doing is to give us the best chance to win games of cricket.”

“Scoring five hundred runs in a day’s Test play? No chance, never in a hundred years, no way! It is interesting when you break it down how they do it… Everyone plays in a slightly different way – you’ve got Joe Root reverse sweeping seamers; you’ve got Ben Stokes who’s literally going out and taking it on from ball one, but in amongst that, you’ve people like Harry Brook, Ben Duckett and Zak (Crawley) who are still playing good cricket shots, but there’s a real positively around their options.”

“They will hit the seamer over their head, they will be nice and positive against spin which is definitely what I’d want out players to look at and learn from.”

“It’s almost as though the fear factor has been taken away completely, you’ve got a group of players in a three or four match series so you can sit down and say that you’re our squad, you’re playing, off you go! Total backing…”

“It’s been really interesting to hear Zak speak about what goes on in the dressing room! Sam (Billings) and the guys who have been party to what happens take the stuff that can work and hopefully it will work for us too.”

“County cricket is a bit different in some ways. You’ve got a bigger squad, you’ve got more players to manage – people are trying to get to England, they’re trying to get there – and really when it comes down to it, it’s about weight of runs.”

“Harry Brook got into the England side by scoring a lot of runs for Yorkshire and that will still be the requirement. Maybe the selectors will look at slightly different things, but we’ve got to make sure that we are doing what we need to do as a team to be successful.”

“And if we do that, I’m sure it will lead onto players gelling for higher honours as well.”

“We’ll definitely take some of the things that England are doing and what’s really evident to me is that there is a real relaxed environment – I’d like to think that we have that already – but this is total positivity and how we can get around and from a bowling point of view, how are we going to take twenty wickets?”

“That’s the only thought, how are we going to take twenty wickets to win this game; how are we going to absorb pressure with the bat to then be able to apply our own pressure when we get in a position of strength, we don’t give up.”

“We just absolutely put our foot down and take the opportunity to drive the opposition into the ground.”

“It’s stuff that we talk about and we know that we can do it better, it is sadly an area of our game that is lacking is that when we get control in games we don’t always make the most of it.”

“So, we will continue to drive that philosophy and certainly it’s extremely inspiring to see what England are doing and we have to take bits out of it and apply it to what we’re doing.”

““Baz ball” has certainly got everyone talking – Test Cricket played in that style and it’s so eye-catching and it does make you wonder what the future is for Test and County cricket, but at the moment it looks as though it’s only going to be an exciting one!”

Picture supplied by Max Flego Photography.