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England’s problem is muddled thinking

The lack of flexibility was really disappointing, writes Geoff Boycott

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

Experienced trio: England’s problem has been that, except for Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff and to an extent Kevin Pietersen, their players lack experience in Indian conditions.

So what are England playing for tomorrow? They said they were playing for money in the recent Stanford series in the West Indies, and they failed to pocket the big bucks. Before they landed in India, they said they were playing for pride, and they’ve lost this battle, too. So maybe they need something else to play for now!

I was amazed by the fact that the team management sent in regular openers Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara in Bangalore on Sunday, though the match had been reduced to 22 overs and they knew exactly how much they had to get.

The lack of flexibility and adaptability was really disappointing, because in a Twenty20 kind of situation, when you start off needing nine an over, you must turn to your big guns.

All their lives, Bopara and Bell have been taught to hit the ball along the floor, as opposed to in the air. They are simply not the men to unleash a slog fest.

The common sense approach (which this England team seems ominously to lack) would have been to send in Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.

Think about it: when you need nine an over, do you send in Boycott and Gavaskar or Botham and Kapil? The result was that by the time Flintoff came in, the asking rate was up to 11 or so an over, because Bopara and Bell had poked around to score 21 in six overs.

I would say England lost the game in those overs. England’s problem is not poor cricketers, but muddled thinking and a notable absence of a cricketing brain in the team ranks.

The other problem, of course, is that as a team, this England outfit has relatively limited experience of playing in India. Other than Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff, and Pietersen to an extent, none of the others are very familiar with India (including the coach, who has never played international cricket), and that is deadly, because India are as tough to beat in India as Australia are in Australia.

All teams play well at home, but the Indians are outstanding, because they have quality spinners, and batsmen who are brilliant on subcontinent pitches.

And now, of course, they have a brilliant captain as well. I have always admired Mahendra Singh Dhoni, right from the time he started his career, and I really do hope he doesn’t wear himself out trying to be captain, keeper, and batsman all at once.

If he does succeed in being all three for the long term, he will become the first cricketer in history to do so, because I have certainly not come across a player who can be more than two things at once for any length of time.

As for the recent reports of an apparent fracas with the BCCI, all I can say is that if Dhoni really did threaten to quit, he will have to tread carefully, because if you make a habit of issuing threats, there’s a chance that sooner or later, you just might be taken at your word.

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