Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott shed light on the defensive techniques of contemporary English batsmen and noted down how lack of tight defence and patience have been letting them down against quality Test match bowling for a while now.
Boycott was bitterly disappointed by what he saw in the first Test against India at Trent Bridge where, if not for skipper Joe Root’s 64 & 109 in the two innings, the hosts might not have managed to take the game to Day 5 when a washout resulted in a draw.
And this wasn’t the first instance that the current set of England batsmen had left a lot to be desired in recent times.
“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,”
he added.
Boycott, however, pointed out that England supporters should not feel “surprised” by their team’s inapt batting performances at the Test level since many of the players just don’t get enough red-ball cricket under their belt.
With England having pushed the County Championship to the different extremes of the summer months, players from the top six in this India series have hardly had any proper first-class games in the few weeks leading into the Nottingham Test.
There has been an excessive dose of white-ball cricket with the T20 Blast, the Royal London One-Day Cup and the inaugural edition of The Hundred.
“Many of our batsmen don’t get enough preparation before Tests with proper county cricket,”
“I don’t think our administrators understand how difficult it can be to transfer the mental approach and way of batting from trying to hit every ball to the different tempo and technique required for Test matches.”
he stated.
