Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott is furious with the way England batted in the first test match against South Africa at Lord’s this week. The England test team had been receiving a lot of accolades for their aggressive brand of cricket in the first four test matches of the summer where they beat New Zealand and India convincingly, but their “Bazball” style of play came down crashing in the first test against South Africa.
Geoffrey Boycott reflected on the game in a recent column that he wrote in the English newspaper “the telegraph”. Boycott wrote that he just couldn’t understand how England were expecting themselves to bash a pace quartet which was bowling at an average speed of 90 miles an hour and was moving the ball to go with it.
Boycott hilariously wrote that England are batting in such a manner these days that one can’t even go to the kitchen and make tea when they are batting because the entire team can collapse by the time the tea is ready.
Geoffrey Boycott said, "when you watch England batters face fast bowling, you don't want to get up and make a cup of tea, because by the time you get back, England will be all out". (To Telegraph).
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 21, 2022
According to Boycott, it’s just not possible to whack the bowling around when the bowling side is posing the kind of challenge that the South African bowlers were posing to England at Lord’s. What is extremely vital in test cricket is to play the conditions, rather than a certain style of play all the time and against a bowling line-up with pace and movement, attacking doesn’t make any sense at all.
Looking to whack the new ball against quality bowlers in test cricket is beyond understanding: Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott also insisted in his column that he is not even sure that the current England batsmen are good enough to save their wickets for a long time against the bowling of South Africa, but rather than looking to save their wickets first and get their eye in, they are looking to bash a high quality, world class bowling line-up.
Boycott is worried that the style of play England has adopted might not work in the next Ashes series against Australia, even though England has to play that series at home.
'You're run by people who have never played the game'@GeoffreyBoycott fears English cricket is being run by idiots.#TelegraphCricket 🏴 #ENGvSA 🇿🇦
— Telegraph Cricket (@telecricket) August 17, 2022
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