India’s Kuldeep Yadav celebrates with skipper Rohit Sharma after the wicket of England batsman Ben Duckett on the primary day of the ultimate check match at HPCA Ground in Dharamshala on March 07, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
The legendary Geoff Boycott stated England batsmen’s failure to negate left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was one of many foremost causes behind the crew’s thumping defeat in opposition to India within the latest Test sequence.
England began the five-match sequence with a win at Hyderabad nevertheless it went progressively worse for them and misplaced the rubber 1-4 as Kuldeep walked away with 19 wickets from 4 video games.
“I was amazed how many of them could not read the wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and by the end of the series were still no wiser. A bowler can be a mystery to you the first couple of times you have to face him.
“But at worldwide degree, batsmen ought to have the opportunity to discover a manner to work him out. Too many by no means regarded snug in opposition to him and had been diminished to staying again and making an attempt to play him off the pitch,” wrote Boycott in his column in The Telegraph.
Boycott was also critical of the overtly aggressive approach of England batters in the series.
“They (English batters) weren’t assured of their potential to defend, particularly with fielders across the bat, in order that they regarded to assault as an alternative. That concept is fraught with hazard in opposition to high quality spinners,” he detailed.
The former England opener, who scored 8114 runs in Test cricket, said, “That is why we noticed some daft dismissals like Ollie Pope operating down the pitch to be stumped by yards and Ben Duckett operating down the pitch to Ashwin to be bowled off an underside edge.” Boycott then underlined the importance for batters to have a tight defence.
“On flat batting pitches at house and in Pakistan and New Zealand our batsmen have had nice enjoyable. Indian pitches have been a bit totally different. Having a great defence is a part of batting.
“That doesn’t mean you have to bat defensively but it is usually wise to play yourself in, get used to the pitch and the bowling before you try to stamp your authority on the game,” he added.
Even although younger England spinners Tom Hartley (22) and Shoaib Bashir (17) took wickets, Boycott stated they had been too inexperienced behind the ears to make a sustained affect in opposition to a top quality aspect like India.
“It was a big gamble to select three novice spinners. Inexperienced kids were never going to out-bowl experienced Indian spinners in India. England were lucky that Virat Kohli was unavailable for all the series and KL Rahul only played one Test,” he wrote.
