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'Inexperienced Kids...': Geoffrey Boycott Pulls No Punches Critiquing ENG's  Series Loss to IND

England suffered a 4-1 series defeatEngland suffered a 4-1 series defeat

In a blistering assessment that cut no corners, former England stalwart, Geoffrey Boycott took the Test team to task for their disappointing 4-1 series defeat at the hands of Rohit Sharma's India.

Despite a promising start with a victory in Hyderabad, Ben Stokes led England team stumbled and fell through the subsequent matches in Vizag, Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamsala. Even when fortune seemed to favour them, England's grasp slipped at crucial junctures, allowing the Indian team to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat time and again.

Geoffrey Boycott blasts England's bowling after 4-1 series defeat to India

Boycott laid bare the root of England's undoing, pointing a finger not at the batsmen, but at the bowling lineup which, in his eyes, lacked the venom to strike fear in the opposition. The critique was particularly scathing towards England's inexperienced spin duo, Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, who, despite topping the wicket-taking charts, proved costly.

According to the England great, Mark Wood's pace was dismissed as ineffective, merely serving up easy balls for the batsmen, while the legendary James Anderson's contributions were curtailed by his twilight years, leaving an unfit Ben Stokes to shoulder the bowling responsibilities too late in the series.

"It wouldn’t frighten anyone: two raw kids in Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir with little first-class bowling as spinners, an ineffectual fast bowler in Mark Wood who just bangs the ball into the track with little movement, a great seamer in Anderson who was used sparingly because he is at the end of his career and an all-rounder Ben Stokes who was unfit to bowl until a bit in the last Test. No wonder it was 4-1," wrote Boycott in his column for the Telegraph.




England's middle-order, featuring Jonny Bairstow, Stokes himself, and Ben Foakes, came under fire for failing to mount a credible resistance against India's bowlers. But Boycott highlighted the bowling as the decisive factor, ridiculing the thought that Hartley and Bashir could outperform their seasoned Indian counterparts on their home turf as "daft, wishful thinking."

"Inexperienced kids were never going to outbowl experienced Indian spinners in India. If anyone thought that then it was daft, wishful thinking. England were lucky that Virat Kohli was unavailable for all the series and KL Rahul only played one Test," added the former cricketer.

Boycott's stinging criticism is a call to arms for England cricket, who are in need for a more formidable and experienced bowling attack if they wish to compete on the world stage.