Boycott talked about England’s bowling attack and said it was not shocking for him to see Ben Stokes and Co. suffer a crushing series defeat.
Legendary batter Geoffrey Boycott expressed his displeasure over England’s bowling resources in the five-match Test series against India. England suffered a crushing 1-4 series defeat at the hands of India who missed a couple of big names in their batting line-up. The visitors took an early advantage in the series with a win in Hyderabad but everything went downhill for them from there as went on to lose four matches on a trot.
Geoffrey Boycott criticises England’s bowling line-up for India Tests.
It was a battle between an inexperienced India batting line-up against the inexperienced England spinners as the former emerged victorious with their impressive show on home soil. Two English bowlers – Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir made their international debut on the Indian tour.
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Boycott talked about England’s bowling attack and said it was not shocking for him to see Ben Stokes and Co. suffer a crushing series defeat.
“It wouldn’t frighten anyone: two raw kids in Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir with little first-class bowling as spinners, an ineffectual fast bowler in Mark Wood who just bangs the ball into the track with little movement, a great seamer in Anderson who was used sparingly because he is at the end of his career and an all-rounder Ben Stokes who was unfit to bowl until a bit in the last Test. No wonder it was 4-1,” Boycott wrote in his column for the Telegraph.
The top five wicket-takers list was dominated by Indians with only one England bowler finding a spot there. Hartley was the highest wicket-taker for England with 22 wickets in 5 matches.
Boycott further wrote that England got lucky that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul (after the first Test) were not part of the series but despite that, they failed to beat India.
“Inexperienced kids were never going to outbowl experienced Indian spinners in India. If anyone thought that then it was daft, wishful thinking. England were lucky that Virat Kohli was unavailable for all the series and KL Rahul only played one Test,” he added.
With the series defeat, England are now placed at the eighth position in the World Test Championship points table as they have won just three Tests out of 10.
