Michael Vaughan: England played Bazball on first day of famous 2005 Edgbaston Test

England were bowled out for 407 on just 79.2 overs on the first evening at Edgbaston in a Test widely regarded 18 years on as among the greatest of all time, with Steve Harmison dismissing Michael Kasprowicz to give England a two-run win

England "were playing Bazball" as far back as the first day of the second Test of the 2005 Ashes, former captain Michael Vaughan has said, recalling the moment that his players announced themselves in the famous series by taking the attack to Australia at Edgbaston.

England were bowled out for 407 on just 79.2 overs on the first evening at Edgbaston in a Test widely regarded 18 years on as among the greatest of all time, with Steve Harmison dismissing Michael Kasprowicz to give England a two-run win.

But it is the first day that Vaughan recalls as being not far from the brand of cricket now being played by England under Ben Stokes. They scored at roughly five runs per over all day, reaching 200 in the 41st over and 400 in the 79th, with Jason Gillespie the most economical of Australia's four bowlers, with an economy rate of 4.13.

"I remember having a team meeting on the Tuesday night and I basically gave the players the freedom to go and be really aggressive with the bat," said Vaughan, speaking as part of a 10-part podcast series from Global – Legends of The Ashes – which launches on June 15. "I said: 'If Warnie comes on try and hit him for six.'"

^{The Ashes begin back at Edgbaston on Thursday (Stu Forster/Getty Images)}

Glenn McGrath famously was ruled out with an ankle injury after treading on a ball during Australia's pre-match warmup, but Vaughan had given his players instructions too around the great fast bowler.

"If McGrath – and we obviously thought McGrath was going to be playing – you know, we can see off that first spell, I think it's important that we respect that first spell," he said. "But when it comes to his second, let's go for it. We have to be aggressive.

"I didn't expect us to get 400 in I think it was 80… very much like the modern England thing, the Ben Stokes….we were playing Bazball in 2005 for that first day at Edgbaston."

Marcus Trescothick smashed 90 in 102 balls, with Kevin Pietersen making 71 off 76 balls and Andrew Flintoff a rapid 68, including five sixes. Even Harmison and Simon Jones struck sixes on a remarkable day's play, with plenty of parallels as this summer's Ashes series prepares for lift-off back at Edgbaston.

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