‘Brainless Bazballers’: Geoffrey Boycott calls England flat-track bullies after Pakan series loss | Cricket News

Former England cricket Geoffrey Boycott did not mince his words as he criticised England’s abject batting display against spin in the Test series loss to Pakan in Rawalpindi.
After England’s batters totalled a record 823/7 decl. at a run-rate of 5.48 on a flatbed Multan pitch, resulting in an innings victory over the hosts, Pakan resorted to rank-turning strips for the second and third Tests of the series.
The Englishmen only added 814 runs in four innings as Pakan rode on a twin-spin attack led Noman Ali and Sajid Khan to script a dramatic comeback 2-1 series win.
“If you want to be rated a great batsman, you must have a rounded game and score runs on all types of pitches,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
After 19 Tests this ICC World Test Championship, the Test side helmed head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has only won nine games.
Labelling the batting group as ‘brainless Bazballers’, Boycott wrote: “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 make some adjustments for conditions.”
“The saddest thing is that England do not play in India or Pakan again on spinning pitches for nearly three years…It was annoying to hear the England players saying after the Pakan series defeat: “That’s how we as a group play,” Boycott lamented.
England also conceded a 3-1 series defeat on their trip to India earlier this year, with the batting crumbling against a potent spin attack. Boycott was particularly critical of skipper Stokes, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope’s techniques against spin.
“For two Test matches our batting was pathetic against spin. In India earlier this year the batsmen were weak and easily spun out.
“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 added.
England’s WTC cycle will conclude with a three-Test series in New Zealand in November-December with Stokes’ men all but out of reckoning for the final for a third successive edition.