India’s Kuldeep Yadav celebrates with skipper Rohit Sharma after the wicket of England batsman Ben Duckett on the first day of the final test match at HPCA Ground in Dharamshala on March 07, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
The legendary Geoff Boycott said England batsmen’s failure to negate left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was one of the main reasons behind the team’s thumping defeat against India in the recent Test series.
England started the five-match series with a win at Hyderabad but it went progressively worse for them and lost the rubber 1-4 as Kuldeep walked away with 19 wickets from four 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 international level, batsmen should be able to find a way to work him out. Too many never looked comfortable against him and were reduced to staying back and trying 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) were not confident of their ability to defend, especially with fielders around the bat, so they looked to attack instead. That idea is fraught with danger against quality spinners,” he detailed.
The former England opener, who scored 8114 runs in Test cricket, said, “That is why we saw some daft dismissals like Ollie Pope running down the pitch to be stumped by yards and Ben Duckett running 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 home and in Pakistan and New Zealand our batsmen have had great fun. Indian pitches have been a bit different. Having a good defence is 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 though young England spinners Tom Hartley (22) and Shoaib Bashir (17) took wickets, Boycott said they were too green behind the ears to make a sustained impact against a quality side 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.
