'They should be embarrassed': Boycott wants to know 'who had the bright idea' of playing three seamers on turning pitch
“England got sucked into thinking they were playing a pink ball test in Adelaide not Ahmedabad,” he added.
England’s 10-wicket loss in the pink-ball Test against India in Ahmedabad has brought their rotation policy under scrutiny. Captain Joe Root’s decision to play a fit-again Jofra Archer along with James Anderson and Stuart Broad while retaining Jack Leach as their only spinner backfired straightaway.
Former England test batsman Geoffrey Boycott has questioned England’s team selection for the third Test, stating that the tourists ‘should be embarrassed’.
“I would also like to know who had the bright idea of playing three fast bowlers on a turning pitch. They should be embarrassed,” Boycott wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
“England got sucked into thinking they were playing a pink ball test in Adelaide not Ahmedabad,” he added.
READ | 'Virat Kohli is looking after the groundsmen': Andrew Strauss disagrees with India captain on Ahmedabad pitch
Earlier, Boycott also defended the pitch as maintained that no rule states about the kind of pitch a cricketing nation should prepare.
“There is nothing in the rules that says what type of pitch should be prepared. We had first choice of the surface and they were better than us. Simple,” Boycott said while responding to a tweet.
Ahead of the Ahmedabad Test, all-rounder Ben Stokes had said that the English seamers were ‘licking their lips’ for getting the pink ball to swing. But the visitors were completely outplayed when the spin overshadowed swing and even England captain Joe Root grabbed a five-wicket haul.
India, on the other hand, had deployed a spin-heavy bowling attack with Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin sharing most of the responsibilities. Axar claimed 11 wickets across innings and became the first bowler to do so in a day-night Test, while Ashwin scalped 7 en route to surpassing 400 test wickets.
After taking a 2-1 lead in the series, India will lock horns with England in the fourth and the final Test which begins on March 4 at the same venue.
