'It was awful stuff': Former cricket legend tears into modern batting after Boxing Day Test
Geoffrey Boycott attributed England's Boxing Day Test victory to superior fundamentals rather than luck, criticizing modern batting development. He argued that white-ball dominance and flat pitches hinder batsmen's ability to handle moving balls on seaming surfaces, a problem exacerbated by reduced County cricket. Boycott also highlighted Australia's ordinary batting, calling their dismissals "shockers" and the overall display "awful stuff."
Australia's Steve Smith, watches a delivery from England's Brydon Carse. (AP/PTI)
Geoffrey Boycott did not treat England’s Boxing Day Test win as a fairytale moment. Instead, he presented it as a clear judgement on how the game is now played and, in his view, misplayed. Writing in The Telegraph, Boycott dismissed any suggestion of luck and argued the result was built on fundamentals. “England won the Boxing Day Test because they played better cricket than Australia. It was no fluke,” he wrote, before widening the argument to what he sees as a structural problem in modern batting.
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According to Boycott, the way batsmen are developed is now at odds with the demands of Test cricket. He pointed to the dominance of white-ball formats and the pitches that come with them.
“One-day matches are played on the flattest batting pitches the groundsmen can provide so the batsmen can dominate by hitting hard at the ball,” he said. “It is absolutely the opposite of learning to bat against the moving ball on seaming pitches.
” For Boycott, the issue is not limited to one series or one opposition. He believes England’s own players are being short-changed by the current calendar. “Our top batsmen play very little County cricket and almost nothing on tours outside Test matches,” he wrote.
“Nets alone will not help batsmen master the technique of playing the moving ball.” That frustration then turned towards the administrators. Boycott accused the ECB of prioritising revenue over long-term excellence. “Sadly, the ECB suits have them playing more and more 50-over, T20 and Hundred cricket because it brings in lots of money,” he wrote, adding: “And we know how money is their idea of success, not winning the Ashes or being the best team in the world.” He even used Joe Root’s struggles as a warning sign rather than a personal failing. “Joe Root is England’s best technical batsman, but had two failures trying play in a normal style,” Boycott wrote. “It just goes to show how modern batsmen do not really have a clue how to defend on a seaming pitch.” Australia, however, came in for the harshest assessment. Boycott said he and other former players had been flagging concerns for some time.
“Some of us ex-player ‘has-beens’ have been saying before and during this tour that the Aussie batting is ordinary, dependent on Smith and Head,” he wrote. “That batting line-up in the second innings showed how poor some of them are.” He also questioned whether Australia’s approach shifted after gaining a first-innings lead. “I don’t know, but what I did see was some awful batting,” Boycott said, before detailing a sequence of dismissals he felt were avoidable, marked by hesitation and poor shot selection. While acknowledging the impact of England’s seamers, Boycott ended where he began, with blunt clarity. “I take nothing away from the quality of the England seamers, but some of those dismissals were shockers.” And in case there was any doubt about his verdict, he summed it up in four words: “It was awful stuff.”