England batsmen criticized by Geoffrey Boycott
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:16 PM
Former England batsman and batting legend Geoffrey Boycott has lashed out against the English batsmen for their display in the fourth test against Pakistan at The Oval. England needed a literal miracle in their second innings to have any hopes of saving the game, but the English batsmen surrendered meekly.
With a deficit of 214 in their second innings, the onus was on skipper Alastair Cook to lead from the front, but his dismissal opened the floodgates for Pakistan as none of the batsmen could manage to steady the innings. Joe Root was looking solid on 39, before he perished to the guile of leg-spinner Yasir Shah. Barring wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who scored a fluent 81, none of the batsmen supported him.
Boycott, in his interaction, was critical about England’s batting. “Vince’s shot was unbelievable,” Boycott said. “He’s playing for his career because he’s had these tiny cameos of 20 and 30 and we’re all saying ‘can’t you bat any longer?’. And what does he do? “It was the most stupidest shot you could imagine. “For me, that’s the end of his Test match career. You can’t carry on like that. “The length wasn’t right, the shot wasn’t right, the situation demanded that he play differently and carefully.”That wasn’t good enough.”
Boycott, though, was most critical about underperforming opener Alex Hales, and even admitted that the right-hander didn’t belong at the highest level of the game. “I’ve always said he’s not going to be a great opening bat, he’s not even going to be a good one,” Boycott said. “He’s going to have some scores and bad scores. It’s always going to be up and down. “For me, he’s not an opener. I don’t care what his mates say, what his friends say, if he’s family’s listening, I know he can play because I’ve seen him in one-days. “He is not a quality opening batsmen.”