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NEW DELHI: England great Geoffrey Boycott repeated on Saturday how much he dislikes “Bazball” style of play and urged the coaching staff to apply some “common sense” to their strategies.
Boycott’s criticism stemmed from England’s inability to win the two most significant series, which were the Ashes series against Australia in 2023 and the series against India earlier in the year.
“There are some amazing decisions under Brendon McCullum (England Test head coach), as he has changed the (team’s) mindset into more positive. But they have gone a bit too far with it.
“They want to save England cricket, the whole of Test cricket. But no Sir, the objective is to win a Test match or series,” said Boycott in Bengaluru during the cricket talk show, Midwicket Stories, which also featured batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull.
Boycott said the England team should learn to respect opposition players and conditions.
“We lost two Ashes Tests and with it the series, playing stupid cricket, and the same happened against India. They came to the series saying we have done practice in Abu Dhabi and all. But Players like (Ravichandran) Ashwin, (Ravindra) Jadeja and Kuldeep (Yadav) got their wickets not without talent.
“Heavens! Those three have some 900 wickets among them in Tests. And we have a captain (Ben Stokes) who does not bowl. So, play with aggression, which is fair, but have that bit of common sense too,” said Boycott.
The legendary batsman from Yorkshire, who amassed 8112 runs at an average of 47.72 while opening with 22 hundreds, also mocked England’s fixation with seasoned pacer James Anderson, who just reached 700 Test wickets.
“To be fair to Jimmy, he was a great bowler, I mean he is still good. But he is not what he used to be as a bowler. When was the last time he bowled 20 overs or more in an innings, he bowled 12 or 14 overs per innings, and that puts pressure on other bowlers,” noted Boycott.
(With PTI inputs)
Boycott’s criticism stemmed from England’s inability to win the two most significant series, which were the Ashes series against Australia in 2023 and the series against India earlier in the year.
“There are some amazing decisions under Brendon McCullum (England Test head coach), as he has changed the (team’s) mindset into more positive. But they have gone a bit too far with it.
“They want to save England cricket, the whole of Test cricket. But no Sir, the objective is to win a Test match or series,” said Boycott in Bengaluru during the cricket talk show, Midwicket Stories, which also featured batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull.
Boycott said the England team should learn to respect opposition players and conditions.
“We lost two Ashes Tests and with it the series, playing stupid cricket, and the same happened against India. They came to the series saying we have done practice in Abu Dhabi and all. But Players like (Ravichandran) Ashwin, (Ravindra) Jadeja and Kuldeep (Yadav) got their wickets not without talent.
“Heavens! Those three have some 900 wickets among them in Tests. And we have a captain (Ben Stokes) who does not bowl. So, play with aggression, which is fair, but have that bit of common sense too,” said Boycott.
The legendary batsman from Yorkshire, who amassed 8112 runs at an average of 47.72 while opening with 22 hundreds, also mocked England’s fixation with seasoned pacer James Anderson, who just reached 700 Test wickets.
“To be fair to Jimmy, he was a great bowler, I mean he is still good. But he is not what he used to be as a bowler. When was the last time he bowled 20 overs or more in an innings, he bowled 12 or 14 overs per innings, and that puts pressure on other bowlers,” noted Boycott.
(With PTI inputs)
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