Collingwood claims England can save Test cricket with Bazball: ‘If we don’t do that, it might not survive’

The Ashes may have appeared even-steven over the first couple of days – but England evidently believe it’s the hosts who will end up as Test cricket’s saviours.

England’s former Twenty20 World Cup-winning captain Paul Collingwood, now assistant to coach Brendon McCullum, declared on Saturday that Test cricket may not survive without the sort of entertainment his side’s ‘Bazball’ approach is bringing to the game.

Suggesting their daring ethos meant more than mere results, it was striking that Collingwood’s bullish comments should come at the end of a second day of the opening Ashes Test at Edgbaston in which Australia had shown a more studied ‘traditional’ approach could be just as effective.

With Australia just 82 runs adrift of England’s manic first-day 8(dec)-393 with five wickets standing and centurion Usman Khawaja not out, Collingwood still had no qualms in effectively painting the home side as the only ones pushing the boundaries of the five-day game.

“We have said right from the start we are trying to make Test cricket a l

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