Geoffrey Boycott, the former England opener has opened up on the harmful impact T20 cricket has had on Test cricket. Geoffrey Boycott underlined that Jonny Bairstow’s performance in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s was the best instance of it.
Jonny Bairstow, who performed commendably in Australia and the West Indies this year, entered the opening Test of the summer with high expectations. He averaged above 45 in both the series.
Geoffrey Boycott Rated Jonny Bairstow’s 2nd Innings Awful As He Played Test Cricket Like A T20 Match
However, the keeper-batter managed just a solitary run in the first innings, followed by a quickfire 16 in the second innings by smacking three boundaries. Geoffrey Boycott stated that Jonny Bairstow’s second innings performance was ‘dreadful’ and felt it was due to playing in the IPL 2022 before Test cricket.
“The best example was Jonny Bairstow’s innings. He scored 16 runs off 15 balls and played like it was a T20 match. It was dreadful. For the state of the game, it was awful. He had just come from two months of T20 in India straight into a Test match and yet we expected him to think like a Test batsman.”
The 108-Test veteran thinks the advent of IPL and T20 cricket has prompted youngsters to hit boundaries from the get-go and maximize runs quickly.
Geoffrey Boycott continued: “Over the last 15 years – since the start of the IPL – the present-day young kids have been taught to hit boundaries, try trick shots and invent ways to whack the ball out of the ground. It is all about how many runs you make off how many balls received. These youngsters have spent their formative years being trained to succeed in T20 cricket.”
Jonny Bairstow, a member of England’s 2019 World Cup-winning squad was brought by Punjab Kings (PBKS) on board for INR 6.75 Crore in IPL 2022 mega auctions. He has scored 253 runs in 11 innings averaging 23 in IPL 2022 and has scored 2 fifties. Both his fifties (66 vs RCB and 56 vs RR) have come when he opened the innings.
England’s top-order batters have faced plenty of criticism in the last 18 months for their poor technique in red-ball cricket. Before the Test victory at Lord’s against the Kiwis, the English team had won only one out of the last 17 Tests.
Geoffrey Boycott Praised Better Test Player Joe Root For Not Playing T20 Cricket
By contrast, Geoffrey Boycott lavished praise on England’s ace batter Joe Root for tailoring his mind and body only for Test cricket. He observed that the Yorkshire batter avoids fancy shots and sticks to orthodox ones with his compact technique.
“Joe Root is a better Test player for not playing Twenty20. All he trains for is Test cricket. You never see Root play the scoop, ramp or any fancy shots. He doesn’t need to because he is bloody good at all the orthodox shots.”
“His mind is trained, his technique is honed and has been from a young age to play proper cricket.”
Although Joe Root failed in the first innings at Lord’s, he made an unbeaten hundred in the second to give England a five-wicket win. In the process, he also became the second England batter to score 10000 Test runs.
Joe Root’s match-winning unbeaten 115 in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s also propelled him to cross the 10,000-run mark in the longest format of the game. On reaching his 26th Test hundred, Joe Root became the 14th cricketer and just the second England cricketer after the opener, Alastair Cook, to become a member of the 10,000 Test-runs club.