LONDON, Aug 9: Former captain Geoffrey Boycott has slammed the England batsmen for showing lack of patience and technique in the drawn first Test against India.
Boycott feels some of the batsmen can’t resist the temptation of poking at the ball when it is not meant to be hit and said too much focus on one-day cricket is adding to their struggles.
Skipper Joe Root was only England batsmen who made an impact in the series-opener, scoring 109 and 64 in his two innings.
“I recently bumped into Graham Gooch and we chatted about England’s batting. He summed it all up by saying: “Fiery, if bowlers keep it tight for four balls, then you know our batsmen will have a go at the fifth and sixth deliveries and there is every chance they will get themselves out,” Boycott wrote in The Telegraph.
“The culture of cricket has changed. Many of us batsmen love playing shots and because of the diet of one day cricket, modern players are pretty good at it, but it is their defensive technique that lets them down.
“It might sound unfashionable because of franchise leagues to talk about staying in and being defensive but, like Goochie said, teams only have to bowl a few good balls because they know batsmen will soon be tempted to play a big shot.”
England’s batsmen had also struggled in the preceding home series against New Zealand.
“We supporters are disappointed when they look to attack all the time, but we should not be surprised, because that is the type of cricket they have been taught at county level,” lamented Boycott.
While India’s makeshift opener K.L. Rahul impressed with 84 and set up a 97-run first wicket partnership with Rohit Sharma in the first innings of the first Test to allay India’s fears which emerged after injuries to openers Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal, host England are struggling to find solutions for their struggling top-order batting.
A desperate England could call up Dawid Malan as replacement for one of their top three batsmen if the trio Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley fail in the second Test against India that begins at Lord’s on August 12.
The three aggregated 97 across two innings in the first Test, with the average per batsman per outing coming to just over 16. Burns may get reprieve for having got 132 and an 81 during the two-Test series against New Zealand in June but the other two batsmen are on sticky wicket.
England already have Haseeb Hameed in the squad.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has called on the team management to replace Crawley with Hameed.
“Zak Crawley could be a high-class Test match player but he has not got enough runs. I wouldn’t play Crawley at Lord’s but he could well go to Australia. He could suit going out of this environment for a while, play some different formats, iron out his technique. It could refresh him,” Vaughan told BBC Test Match Special. (Agencies)
