ENG vs NZ: Jonny Bairstow Played Like It Was A T20 Match, It Was Dreadful - Geoffrey Boycott

Former England player Geoffrey Boycott was distraught with the performance of England batter, Jonny Bairstow, after the first Test between England and New Zealand at the Lord’s last week.

Bairstow had scores of 1 & 16 in the Test match but what irked Boycott is the approach taken by the Yorkshireman. Bairstow came out with the mindset of smashing each delivery he faced and didn’t bother to hang around as Joe Root did at the other end.

“The best example was Jonny Bairstow’s innings. He scored 16 runs off 15 balls and played like it was a T20 match. It was dreadful. For the state of the game, it was awful. He had just come from two months of T20 in India straight into a Test match and yet we expected him to think like a Test batsman.”

“Over the last 15 years – since the start of the IPL – the present-day young kids have been taught to hit boundaries, try trick shots and invent ways to whack the ball out of the ground. It is all about how many runs you make off how many balls received. These youngsters have spent their formative years being trained to succeed in T20 cricket,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

“You never see Root play the scoop, ramp or any fancy shots” – Geoffrey Boycott

In stark contrast, Root played a near-perfect knock in the fourth innings run chase where he reached his 26th Test hundred and also went past the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket – only the second Englishman after Alastair Cook to do so.

“Joe Root is a better Test player for not playing Twenty20. All he trains for is Test cricket. You never see Root play the scoop, ramp, or any fancy shots. He doesn’t need to because he is bloody good at all the orthodox shots. His mind is trained, his technique is honed, and has been from a young age to play proper cricket,” the former pro added.

England won the Test by 5 wickets and they take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match Test series. The next game begins on June 10 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

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