26 January 2023 , 11:10
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South Africa have become the first team to openly admit they will be taking their cues from England's 'Bazballers' and putting it into their own cricket performances of the future.
Imitation is surely the sincerest form of flattery when it comes to sporting excellence with competition for honours so fierce, so it stands to reason that England's double World Cup winners across 50 over and T20 cricket are the gold standard for others to follow.
South Africa once again flattered to deceive at the recent T20 World Cup in Australia that England won with the Netherlands dumping them out of the tournament in a Dutch derby.
And Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have turned England into serial winners in red ball cricket too, with their fearless and attacking style of cricket that has been a joy to both play and watch.
It is why Temba Bavuma is keen to employ similar tactics with his ODI team who are facing a battle to qualify automatically for the 2023 World Cup in India.
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Realistically they need to win three of their last five matches against England and the Netherlands to book their spot, a far from certain outcome.
Bavuma is ready to follow England's attacking brand of cricket (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)"We obviously know where we stand in terms of how many points or games we need to win," said Bavuma. "But we’d like to shift our focus a little bit going towards the World Cup.
"There’s an opportunity for us to really clear up our identity on how we want to play which is something I've been thinking about, looking at other teams and the way they're doing things.
"Obviously England, they're probably the pioneers of the game, not just white-ball cricket, even red-ball cricket. It really seems as if cricket is going in that direction.
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are providing inspiration for other teams (Getty Images)"Guys are taking on the game a lot more and England have obviously done that very well over the last couple of years. We South Africans have our way of thinking, we have our way of doing things but I think there is nothing wrong with us taking a little bit from England, pulling it together and seeing what comes about.
"The biggest thing with the personnel that we have is guys going out and expressing themselves, if that equates to a South African 'Bazball' way of playing - to use a stupid term - then so be it.
"If it means we're going to go out there and block the s*** out of the ball then so be it."