England national cricket team’s great batsman Geoffrey Boycott criticized the English team’s Bazball approach following their 106-run loss to Indian National Cricket Team in the second Test at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
England were heading into the second Test with a lot of confidence, having won the first Test from a losing position. The Ben Stokes-led team again played impressive cricket in the second Test and were in the game for all four days.
However, England could not survive against the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. The right-arm spinner quickly dismantled England with his 9 wickets as Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed a double century and Gill smashed a century.
Of the England batting unit, only Zak Crawley could put up a good performance in both innings, while other batsmen failed. Expectations were through the roof regarding Joe Root, considered one of the best batsmen today. However, he also failed and recorded scores of 5 and 16.
Root was trying to play an attacking brand of cricket in the second innings from the first ball and lost his wicket in the process. This did not sit well with Sir Geoffrey Boycott, who lashed out at Bazball’s approach.
Bazball cost Joe Root his wicket – Geoffrey Boycott
In his column for The Telegraph, Boycott put all the blame on Bazball for Joe Root’s failure in the India Test series. He said that Root is England’s best technical batsman and takes the wicket of him as he tries to chase the bowlers.
“Bazball cost Joe Root his wicket. As soon as he came in, he was dancing around the field trying to hit it over the top and pretty soon he threw it into the air. He only scored 16.
“England’s best technical batsman is usually a busy player who scores at a good pace, but trying to go after the bowling as soon as it comes in takes him out of his comfort zone.”
The England national cricket team who batted very well further said:
“It sounds great to the public and it’s good copy for our media when Stokes says we’ll chase any goal and Sir Alastair Cook wouldn’t make this team. That’s silly.
“Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett are doing well and have plenty of time left in their careers to improve further. But, at the moment, there’s no way they’re better than Cook, and he was right to respond that his career weight would have earned him a spot on this team. There is no substitute for racing.”
Coming back to the India vs England series, it is currently 1-1. The third Test is scheduled to be played from February 15 at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.
The Indian national cricket team is yet to announce its squad for the rest of the series against the England national cricket team and there is a question mark over the participation of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja in the series.
Reports claim that Rahul might return for the third Test, but there is no confirmation on Jadeja’s availability. Also, batting great Virat Kohli is not currently in India and AB de Villiers recently revealed that Kohli and Anushka Sharma are expecting their s.second son.