Bazball, Sheffield United and Ivo Grbić

The success of the England Test Cricket team stems from a desire to encourage and express talent. It's something Sheffield United supporters should take to heart

David Taylor

“I guess, if you lose, you wake up in the morning, you’re still having a good crack at life, still breathing… so I don’t fear failure. All I want to do is try to encourage whoever finds themselves lucky enough to be in the squad; just give them the full ‘go out there, express yourself as much as you possibly can, and we’ll be alright.’”

Ben Stokes after England’s victory in the first Test against India in Hyderabad

England is straining under the amount of humble pie ordered across the land. After a pretty disastrous start to the first Test Match on their tour of India, England put together the sort of second-half cricket renaissance you only see once a generation, with Ollie Pope sweeping his way to 196 runs and debutant Tom Hartley taking seven wickets in the second innings as England grabbed a famous victory where very few manage the feat.

Vitriol, doubt and armchair analysis rapidly faded away as the last three Indian wickets fell on Sunday. I’ll hold my hands up: as Tom Hartley was swatted around the ground in the first innings, managing to claim two wickets for a gut-punching 131 runs, I wasn’t entirely sure we’d found the solution to our spinning issues. However, Hartley’s performance in the second innings was something out of a feel-good sports flick, the Lancastrian ripping through India on their home turf as if it were a training session for the under 17s.

I’m still not sure all our problems are solved, of course: one seven-fer doesn’t make a summer. But for Hartley to come back from a chastening debut bowling stint to form a major part of such an historic win takes confidence. Luckily, overpowering the voice of Terry – 43, part-time medium pace for Otley thirds* – are head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. Their approach to the squad is one of freedom and expression, and of ignoring outside noise to buy into the team’s mentality. It’s a similar story with Ollie Pope, who overcame doubts around his suitability for the Test team and a long stint out with a shoulder surgery to post that match-reversing 196 and receive praise across the board, from teammates Stokes and Joe Root to Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen.  

If the England and Wales Cricket Board had listened to received wisdom, Pope and Hartley might not have been in the squad. On the other hand, their selections might’ve failed miserably (which looked to be the case on Friday), but hey: that’s the game. You wake up in the morning, you’re still having a good crack at life.

Ivo Grbić is an international goalkeeper who has been an able understudy for the world-class Jan Oblak over a number of years at Atlético Madrid. In terms of pedigree, that’s a level of keeper Sheffield United could have only dreamed of a short number of years ago. He signed last Friday and played on Saturday, conceding two penalties, two worldies, and one injury-time squirmer.  This is enough for some to bin a player that by almost every metric can improve the team and our performances. He has drastically more going for him than Hartley has for England selection, but with one appearance, he’s already a write-off. 

Chris Wilder obviously went to the same school as Brendan McCullum, telling journalists that:

“He’s going to be our goalkeeper for the foreseeable future. We have signed him on a long-term deal and have confidence that it’s a good decision that we have got our own goalkeeper. The deal is a really good one and the boy wanted to come.

“He’s got a good pedigree and will get better… As you all know, Jack O’Connell wouldn’t have had the career he had, if people had made that decision on him after three or four games.

“It’s a tough one for him to take, as he will have wanted to get off to a good start personally and it looks as if he hasn’t. But there’s more to come from him and he’ll be better – and we will be better – with him playing at the highest level.”

It’s no use pretending we’re currently playing mesmerising football with a rock-solid defensive unit: if you think that, I have some beans to sell you. But jumping on a player who moved to the club 24 hours beforehand is the most reactionary take I’ve seen from the United fanbase for a long time (in our case, last week). 

Pressure causes mistakes: just look at the India team, who prodded their way to within a few runs of victory, only to fall on the final stretch. Imagine a billion sets of eyes watching your performance, ready to take a swipe at any mistakes and deviations from the plan. You’d crumble; whereas the free spirit of England’s Bazball antics means players can dust themselves down after a hammering and put in a winning performance the next day. 

I’m sure the United dressing room has a healthier approach to performances and mistakes (some might say a little too healthy…), but as a fanbase we need to learn to embrace the chaos. As it is, we’re not a Premier League-quality team, but we’re there on merit. We need to remember both sides to this, dusting ourselves down after a poor result, maybe screaming into a pillow instead of at the players. You wake up in the morning, you’re still having a good crack at life.

As Stokes said after the Ashes, if the ambition to win overpowers the fear of failure, you'll do alright. Two England players who were written off just combined for the greatest away win in living memory. I think we can give our new number 1 the benefit of the doubt – at least for a few games…  

*Any resemblance to a real Terry is purely coincidental