Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott believes modern-day batters no longer know how to play defensively on seaming pitches.
A Test match that ended in just two days, with no half-centuries across either team’s innings, left Boycott deeply frustrated. The poor batting display from both Australia and England in the Melbourne Test of this Ashes series prompted the English batting great to question the overall quality of today’s batters.
On a Melbourne pitch with 10 millimetres of grass, 20 wickets fell on the very first day. Australia were bowled out for 152 in the first innings before skittling England for just 110. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts in the second innings, as they were dismissed for 132. Chasing a modest target of 176, England secured victory with six wickets to spare.
After losing the first three matches, England had already seen their hopes of winning the series fade. This win, however, ended a long wait, as they tasted a Test victory in Australia for the first time in 15 years and after 18 matches.
Boycott did not hesitate to credit England for the win. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said, “England won the Boxing Day Test because they played better cricket than Australia. This was no fluke.”
He then dug deeper into the reasons behind such a batting collapse, placing much of the blame on the nature of modern cricket.
“One-day matches are played on batting-friendly pitches. Groundsmen prepare surfaces that allow batters to dominate. That is completely the opposite of learning how to bat against a swinging ball on a seaming pitch.”
The 85-year-old Boycott was particularly critical of England’s batters, who struggled throughout the Ashes in Australia.
“Our top players play very little county cricket and, on tours, hardly play anything outside of Test matches. You cannot learn to properly handle the swinging ball by just practicing in the nets.”
Boycott, who scored over 8,000 runs in 108 Test matches, also aimed sharp criticism at England cricket’s top officials.
“The sad truth is that the ECB keeps players busy with more 50-over cricket, T20s, and The Hundred because it brings in huge money. We all know that their measure of success is financial profit, not winning the Ashes or being the best team in the world.”
According to Boycott, modern batters lack even the basic understanding of how to bat on lively pitches.
“Joe Root is England’s best technical batter, yet he failed twice trying to play his natural game. That proves today’s batters simply do not know how to bat defensively on seaming pitches.”
Boycott did not spare Australia’s batting either.
“Some of us former cricketers said before and during this series that Australia’s batting was only average and heavily dependent on Smith and Head. Their second-innings performance showed just how many weak batters they actually have.”
He also questioned whether Australia became complacent after gaining a first-innings lead, though he ultimately felt the issue was poor batting overall.
“I don’t know if they became complacent, but what I saw was simply very bad batting.”
The fifth and final Ashes Test will begin in Sydney next Sunday.
