Former England player Geoffrey Boycott responded bluntly after England lost the second Ashes Test against Australia by eight wickets in Brisbane, leaving England trailing 0-2 in the five-match series as well. The veteran also added that England were no match for Australia in all three facets of the game.
Boycott wrote in his column for The Telegraph (via News 18): “Brisbane was a horror show: irresponsible batting, bowling too short, too wide or too full, and catches dropped. This Australian team was there to be beaten, but somehow, after just six days of Ashes cricket, England need a miracle. England talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. With this sort of batting and bowling, they couldn’t win an egg cup, let alone the Ashes urn.”
“Ben Stokes said England had a blueprint. They had been planning this tour for four years and know what they are doing. What a load of bulls—. We can’t believe anything Ben or his team say. None of them want to listen to anyone outside of their own camp. They are up their own backsides convinced that Test cricket has changed so much that only they know anything about the modern game… One of the problems with this squad is it appears nobody tells them off or sits them down and discusses what they could or should have done differently. All we ever hear from the captain is attack, and from the coach, keep the faith,” he stated again.
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“But what do I know? I am just a has-been who did four England tours of Australia, winning two Ashes series and drawing the other two. This lot aren’t even afraid of getting dropped, which is why we see the same old failings, particularly in the batting,” he further added.
Meanwhile, England head coach Brendon McCullum said that the team had intense training sessions before the second Test, which cost them the all-important Test match as well.
He said (via BBC): “We had five intense training sessions leading into this game. Sometimes there is a tendency to overdo things to make up for it. If anything, we trained too much. As we all know, in this game, it is played in the top two inches.”
