Geoffrey Boycott lambasts England’s ‘brainless Bazballers’

England scored 823/7 and declared their first innings in Multan during the first Test of their Pakistan tour. That was enough to win that Test, as Pakistan couldn’t outscore them despite batting twice. However, in the next two Tests, the fortunes completely reversed as Pakistan made a remarkable comeback, winning both the games and the series on spin-friendly surfaces. 

Interestingly, England could score only 814 runs in the next four innings of the series combined and lost 39 of their 40 wickets to the spin of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan. 

Writing in his column for the Telegraph, 83-year-old former England opener Geoffrey Boycott called the English batters' approach ‘brainless Bazballers’. He also called them flat-track bullies. 

“If you want to be rated a great batsman, you must have a rounded game, and score runs on all types of pitches,” the Yorkshireman said. 

“They are entertaining and fantastic to watch because you never know what they are going to do next, good or bad, but Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum want their team to be the best. Unfortunately they are wasting their opportunity and risk being remembered as flat-track bullies unless they adjust for conditions.”

Boycott especially criticised the spin-playing approach of Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Stokes and Harry Brook. 

“As soon as the ball grips, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, and Stokes are all at sea. They go at the ball with hard hands, and there are gaps between bat and pad,” Boycott said. 

“The saddest thing is that England do not play in India or Pakistan again on spinning pitches for nearly three years…It was annoying to hear the England players saying after the Pakistan series defeat: “That’s how we as a group play,”

For two Test matches, our batting was pathetic against spin. In India earlier this year, the batsmen were weak and easily spun out.”

These obvious flaws in their spin game have led England to 4-1 and 2-1 defeats against India and Pakistan in the subcontinent, respectively. It doesn’t matter if they win their last remaining fixture in this cycle of the World Test Championship — a three-Test series in New Zealand; these losses and their other performances have ensured that their chances of making the WTC final are almost zero. 

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