Former Australian tempo bowler Brett Geeves believes England’s ultra-aggressive strategy is prone to backfire throughout the Ashes, including that the declaration on day one of many first Test at Edgbaston was an indication of “wild arrogance” on the a part of Ben Stokes’ aspect. England had declared their first innings on 393 for eight regardless of Joe Root batting on an unbeaten 118, and the house aspect may have simply scored a couple of extra, which may have given them a psychological benefit. The choice to declare was criticised by a number of consultants and Australia went on to win the thrilling Test by two wickets.

Geeves, who has performed one ODI and two T20Is for Australia and has been a profitable first-class bowler, mentioned ‘Bazball’ — the time period coined for England’s overly aggressive and result-oriented fashion of play — is unlikely to work towards Australia.

“It (Bazball) sets them (England) up to fail and to me it kind of feels like ‘even if we lose we’re playing the best cricket and we have won anyway,” Geeves instructed Sen Radio on Saturday.

“That’s not how it works. Particularly against Australia in the Ashes,” opined the 41-year-old.

He mentioned it was “disrespectful” on the a part of England coach Brendon McCullum to inform his gamers that he was pleased with them regardless of the defeat. Geeves opined, the coach was undermining the efforts of the Australians by saying this.

“There was (an) article that I was reading that quotes Brendon McCullum in terms of their loss, they’re in the changer rooms and Brendon spoke first and he says; ‘Lads, I am immensely proud of the effort you put in. We have made the game what it was. We were so close to pulling off an unbelievable victory. We played all the cricket in the game. If it wasn’t for us the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win’.” “It is just a really disrespectful approach to the performances of Pat Cummins and the performance of the run chase and their ability to hold England to 276 in the best batting conditions of the game.” Australia skipper Cummins scored an unbeaten 44 and associate Nathan Lyon struck 16 not out, when the chips had been down, to take the guests to the successful goal of 282 set by England.

Geeves indicated Australia have a couple of tips up their sleeve and they’re going to proceed to enhance because the five-Test sequence progresses.

“Australia’s still got some improvement. They’ll get a little bit more out of their batting list as the series progresses and strategically if they can get their mindset right from a fielding and strategy standpoint, I think they are going to do very well.

“In explicit if England have this mindset of untamed vanity and that is what that declaration was. It was wildly boastful to assume that (8/393) was sufficient within the first innings on a really flat wicket.

“And yes, absolutely, they (Australia) won the game on the back of the English’s ridiculously dumb declaration. There is no doubt that England played a part in their win.” He mentioned that had England not declared and scored one other 50-60 runs, they may have batted Australia out of the competition.

“They (England) could have come back the next day and tried to bat for another 50 or 60 runs which would have batted Australia out of the game, only one team would have been able to win the game had they made 450 or 460 and that was England,” he mentioned.

“It’s because of the arrogance surrounding their approach to the game. 8/393 declared, you don’t do that in Test match cricket. You don’t do that across a five-day game when Joe Root is 118 not out.” The second Test begins at Lord’s on Jun 28.