"He was dancing..." - Geoffrey Boycott blames Bazball for Joe Root's failure vs India

England National Cricket Team batting great Geoffrey Boycott has slammed the Bazball approach of the English team following their 106-run loss to India National Cricket Team in the second Test at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.

England were heading into the second Test with a lot of confidence, having won the first Test from a losing position. The Ben Stokes-led side once again played impressive cricket in the second Test and were in the game for all four days.

However, England were unable to survive against the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill. The right-arm quick dismantled England with his 9 wickets while Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed a double century and Gill smashed a century.

From the England batting unit, only Zak Crawley was able to deliver a good performance in both innings while other batters failed. Expectations were sky-high from Joe Root, who is regarded as one of the greatest modern-day batters. However, he too failed and registered scores of 5 & 16.

Root was trying to play an attacking brand of cricket in the second innings from the very first ball and lost his wicket in the process. This didn’t go down well with Sir Geoffrey Boycott, who lashed out at the Bazball approach.

Bazball cost Joe Root his wicket – Geoffrey Boycott

In his column for The Telegraph, Boycott put the entire blame on Bazball for the flop show of Joe Root in the India Test series. He said that Root is England’s best technical batsman and he throws his wicket away while trying to go after the bowlers.

“Bazball cost Joe Root his wicket. As soon as he came in, he was dancing down the pitch trying to hit over the top and very soon swiped it up in the air. He only scored 16.

“England’s best technical batsman is normally a busy player who scores at a good rate, but trying to go after the bowling as soon as he comes in takes him out of his comfort zone.”

The England National Cricket Team batting great further said:

“It sounds great to the public and good copy for our media when Stokes says we will chase down any target, and Sir Alastair Cook wouldn’t get in this team. That is nonsense.

“Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett are doing well and have plenty of time left in their careers to become even better. But, at the moment, there is no way they are better than Cook, and he did right to reply that his weight of runs would have earned him a place in this team. There is no substitute for runs.”

Coming back to the India vs England series, it currently stands at 1-1. The third Test is scheduled to be played from February 15 at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.

India National Cricket Team are yet to announce their squad for the remainder of the series against England National Cricket Team and there is a question mark over the participation of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja in the series.

Reports claim that Rahul might be back for the third Test, but there is no confirmation of Jadeja’s availability. Also, the batting great Virat Kohli is currently not in India and AB de Villiers recently revealed that Kohli and Anushka Sharma are expecting their second child.