I was amazed how England batters could not read Kuldeep Yadav: Geoffrey Boycott

Kuldeep Yadav (Photo Source – Twitter/X)

After an embarrassing 4-1 defeat at the hands of India, legendary cricketer Geoffrey Boycott opened up about England’s misery and stated that the Ben Stokes-led side had no answer to Kuldeep Yadav’s mystery. Notably, the star India spinner picked up 19 wickets in four Tests and played a pivotal part in India’s success. In the fifth Test against the Three Lions in Dharamshala, Kuldeep picked up a five-for, which gave the hosts a lot of momentum.

Speaking about his impact, Boycott opined that the English batters didn’t execute well in the middle. He added that a spinner can only be mysterious in the first couple of times but they didn’t improve, which led to their downfall. The 83-year-old mentioned that international players should find a way to tackle difficulties but the England team never looked comfortable in the middle.

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“I was amazed how many of them could not read the wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and by the end of the series were still no wiser. A bowler can be a mystery to you the first couple of times you have to face him. But at international level, batsmen should be able to find a way to work him out. Too many never looked comfortable against him and were reduced to staying back and trying to play him off the pitch,” wrote Boycott in his column in The Telegraph.

English batters were not confident of their ability to defend: Boycott

The former cricketer also believes that England batters were over-aggressive with the bat in the five-match series. He believes that the batters were not confident in their ability to defend, so they went for power-hitting but it didn’t work out in their favour.

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“They (English batters) were not confident of their ability to defend, especially with fielders around the bat, so they looked to attack instead. That idea is fraught with danger against quality spinners. On flat batting pitches at home and in Pakistan and New Zealand our batsmen have had great fun. Indian pitches have been a bit different. Having a good defence is part of batting,” he detailed.