'Batting without brains': Boycott buries head in disbelief after England's shock collapse
England's aggressive approach despite fields being set for short ball traps may have been in keeping with their mantra to be on the attack in Test matches regardless of the situation.
Day three of the second Ashes Test did not make for pretty viewing for England fans. Chasing Australia's first innings total of 416, England had raced to 188/1 with their top three of Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope all delivering. However, England still ended up falling a whopping 91 runs short as their batting order collapsed over the course of the last session on Day 2 and the first session Day 3.
England had come into the third day with Ben Stokes and Harry Brook getting some kind of stability for the team towards the end of Day 2.
That stability, though, didn't last long with Stokes falling in the very first over on Friday. Brook managed to get to 50 off 68 balls before splicing a short ball straight to cover. Six England wickets fell to short balls as the hosts were suckered into trying big shots off bouncers by the Australians.
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England's aggressive approach despite fields being set for short ball traps may have been in keeping with their mantra to be on the attack in Test matches regardless of the situation. However, it didn't impress many former cricketers. A visual ran of Geoffrey Boycott, the former England captain, covering his face with his hand after Brook's dismissal which has since gone viral on social media. Boycott himself responded to one of the tweets, stating that he was at the time batting with his former captain Mike Brearley and slamming England's approach. "Yes it does, batting without brains. Chatting to my captain Mike Brearley," said Boycott in his tweet.
Boycott said that it is this approach regardless of the situation of the match that resulted in opener Duckett missing out on his century by two runs. "They want to attack everything and never be tied down. So when you're like that, ego takes over and it got Pope and Duckett out," Geoffrey Boycott wrote in The Telegraph.
"Australia kept playing on England's ego and Joe Root obliged. The hook shots let Australia back in the match when they had them by the throat. At one stage, England were cruising and very much on top … but surrendered to this bumper barrage," said Boycott.
Australia ended up inflating their lead to 221 runs at the end of Day 3, with Usman Khawaja staying unbeaten on 58 off 123. He will have Steve Smith at the other end on six runs when the teams walk out on Day 4 at Lord's.
