Geoffrey Boycott warns England side under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum will be remembered as ‘flat-track bullies’ after series loss to Pakan | Cricket News
England have won the first Test in Multan on a docile surface against Pakan with comfort. However, they were found out in the second and third Tests in Multan and Rawalpindi when Pakan decided to roll out turners. Both Sajid Khan and Noman Ali went on to pick 40 of the 39 English batters from the two Tests to help Pakan win the series 2-1. Former English player Geoffrey Boycott will warn the side to be remembered as “flat-track bullies.”
“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,” wrote Boycott in his column for the Telegraph. “If they do not learn their lessons, they will not be remembered as a great team. Yes, they are entertaining and fantastic to watch because you never know what they are going to do next, good or bad.”
“It gives the impression that they think they know it all and have nothing to learn. Richie Benaud used to say you never stop learning! Our youngsters seem to think they invented the wheel, do not want to change and that we oldies do not know anything about Test match cricket,” he wrote.
Naseer Hussain too would express his concern over England’s batters’ ability to play against spin. “Because the pitches were so different from the first Test to the second and third, there’s no doubting that scores should go down and wickets for spinners should go up, but the discrepancy in the England side is a concern,” he told to Sky Sports.
“It shouldn’t be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line, but then the moment it grips and you can’t play like that, you’re then a little bit lost. And three of their top six seem to be lost in these conditions. I’m talking about Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, who has hard hands, or Stokes in Asia.” he added.
