Former England opening batter Geoffrey Boycott has asked Jonny Bairstow about playing the sweep shot in the fourth innings of the third Test against India at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot. Boycott said that Bairstow plays the ball straight well, but added that the shot was down to pressure. Bairstow, who has struggled in all three Tests, played the sweep shot against left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. He went for a review after speaking to Joe Root briefly but walked back without taking it.

In his column for The Telegraph, the veteran wrote: “This match alone all three got out LBW sweeping at balls pitched on the stumps. Bairstow is never a good sweeper of the ball. He gets very few runs with it and has got out before in India trying to sweep. Jonny is a fantastic straight hitter of a cricket ball but pressure makes batsmen do silly things.”

He further added: “The new young spinners have done okay. It is the batting that is not firing. The middle order has been the engine room for England for the last two years but at the moment Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes have not contributed enough runs and too often they have given their wickets away by trying to score too quickly. Any team would struggle with a middle order averaging only 20 runs each.”

However, having conceded a 126-run lead after their first innings, England were playing their normal game for the remaining part of the game. With 557 set for them to win, they collapsed to face to a 434-run loss.

“Root and Stokes tried to save the match by defending for 40 and 39 balls but then inexplicably couldn’t resist trying to sweep balls pitched on the stumps. Why? Runs were of no use at that stage of the game,” he concluded.