England cricket great's brutal swipe amid Bazball backlash: 'Screwed it up'
The legendary cricket icon says England's brutal Ashes reality should be giving them 'nightmares'.
Cricket great Sir Geoffrey Boycott has dropped a brutal truth bomb on England after insisting they blew the "opportunity of a lifetime" to reclaim the Ashes in a series that should give them "nightmares". The former England captain has added to the pile-on against Ben Stokes' side, whose stubborn commitment to their aggressive 'Bazball' approach has come under fire around the cricket world.
Stokes and England have tried to claim a moral victory by suggesting their exciting approach to Test cricket will leave a legacy fans will long remember. Many former England greats have claimed their side was superior over the first four Tests - despite failing to regain the Ashes - with Aussie legend Ricky Ponting among those to argue that the hosts were also the architects of their own downfall.
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England have taken great pride in how they've entertained fans this series and even after losing the first two Tests, claimed some sort of psychological victory. Critics have argued England's self-confidence has been a tactic to mask the team's failings, but Boycott has gone one step further by declaring English "hubris" is actually the reason why the urn remains in Australia's possession.
The former England skipper says amid all the talk about their Bazball revolution and the positive impact it's had on the sport, Stokes' men have lost sight of the bigger picture - winning back the Ashes. “England had an opportunity of a lifetime and screwed it up. The idea of losing the Ashes should give them nightmares,” Boycott wrote in a column for The Telegraph in the UK.
“Before the start of the series most people - me included - felt there was not much to choose between the two teams but very quickly England showed that man for man and as a team they had the edge. The cricket England played was spectacular and their new brand of batting deservedly received so much praise and so many plaudits.”
Before the Ashes series got underway, England had won nine of 11 Tests under coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes, with none ending in a stalemate. They'd earned plaudits all around the world for exciting, attack-oriented Test cricket that had captured the imagination of fans, but Boycott says England's players were guilty of over-indulging in their own hype.
“England gave Test match cricket a shot in the arm but then they let it go to their heads and started to say they wanted to entertain and that it did not matter if they lost because they were still going to play Bazball and change Test cricket,” Boycott added. “When you start to believe your own self-importance then sport will bite you on the backside.
"It’s called hubris. I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and it says: arrogance, conceit, superiority, and big headedness. Well, they did entertain at Edgbaston but reckless batting cost them the match. So England mauled Australia but lost. How galling is that? They lost sight of the object, which was to win the Ashes.”
Aussie greats say England only have themselves to blame
Ponting said one of England's biggest mistakes was the day one declaration in the opening Ashes Test that Australia won at Edgbaston. The Aussie great also pointed to the second Test at Lord's - where a reckless England were bowled out for 325 after being 1-188 in their first innings - meant the home side only had themselves to blame.
“I said right from the start, if they want to play that way, that brand of cricket and they’ve talked about it so much, they sort of back themselves into a corner where they’ve got to play that way,” Ponting said. “And when that tactic started, they were in complete control of the game at that point, the batting looked good, they were scoring quickly, and then the loss of those four or five wickets in a short amount of time, turned that (Lord’s) Test match on its head.
Fellow Aussie legend Glenn McGrath agreed, and insisted if England had focused on being "ruthless" rather than entertaining, they probably would have reclaimed the Ashes already. “If they (England) had played truly ruthless cricket, they could be 3-0 up by now but they’re 2-1 down and the Ashes have gone," McGrath said.
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