Forget the philosophy... great form is key to glory

YOU can have all the philosophies you like. In cricket, there is now Bazball. In football, we have had a barrowload.

Tiki-taka, Total Football, heavy metal.

It is hard to beat a good old philosophy with a new-fangled name.

But in sport, there is, generally, one thing that overrides everything else, one thing that is more pivotal than any other factors.

Form.

In their tiki-taka pomp, Barcelona were magnificent to watch but their success was as much down to the individual brilliance of Lionel Messi as it was to a team ethic.

Joe Root has long been English cricket’s Lionel Messi – he has been in the form of his life for most of his life.

And Jonny Bairstow is in the form of another, surreal life.

There are times when footballers complete every pass, strike every attempt at goal sweetly.

There are times when golfers make every putt they look at, when they pick up the tee-peg without even bothering to watch the ball finding the middle of the fairway 300 yards away. That is Bairstow right now.

It is hard to give it a catchy name, tough to explain in snappy phrases, but he is in that moment when certain sportsmen and women just seem to see things others do not.

And considering the struggles he has been through, it is quite wonderful to witness.

Bazball IS a thing, no doubt. Bairstow and the rest of the squad adopt a more adventurous, attacking approach under this Brendon McCullum regime (he’s Baz, in case you didn’t know) and under Ben Stokes’ captaincy so, in essence, they have had the freedom to express themselves.

But don’t let philosophies camouflage stunning individual brilliance (coach McCullum shakes hands with India captain Jasprit Bumrah yesterday, above).

Because, from the remarkable Bairstow in particular, that is what is winning Test matches for England right now.