It was dreadful, he played like it was a t20 game: Geoffrey Boycott

Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott has shared the negative impact T20 cricket has had on the Test format. Boycott cited the example of veteran England batter Jonny Bairstow's performance in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's. 

However, Bairstow, who performed exceptionally well in Australia and the West Indies this year, entered the first Test of the summer with a lot of expectations.

But, the wicketkeeper-batter managed just a single run in the first innings, followed by a quickfire 16 in the second by hitting three boundaries before getting out. 

While writing his column for The Telegraph, Boycott added that Bairstow's second innings performance was 'dreadful'. However, he felt that it was due to playing in the Indian Premier League before Test cricket.

"The best example was Jonny Bairstow's innings. He scored 16 runs off 15 balls and played like 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," he stated.

The veteran also thinks that the chances of playing IPL and T20 cricket have given youngsters the right to hit boundaries from the beginning and maximise runs quickly, too as well.

Boycott continued: "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. So these youngsters have spent their formative years being trained to succeed in T20 cricket."

Meanwhile, England's top orders have come under the scanner in the last 18 months for their poor show in the game's longer format. Before the Test victory at Lord's against New Zealand, England had won only one out of the last 17 Tests under Joe Root. 

However, Boycott applauded England's ace batter Joe Root for preparing well for Test cricket. He also shared how Root avoids fancy shots and sticks to orthodox ones with his beautiful technique.

He added, "Joe Root is a better Test player for not playing t20. 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 he has been trained from a young age to play proper cricket,"

Although Joe Root failed in the first innings at Lord's, he scored an unbeaten century in the second innings to help England register a five-wicket win. In the process, he also became the second England player to score 10000 Test runs.