Persisting with Chris Woakes is proving to be “counter-productive” while Zak Crawley doesn’t seem to have the ability to learn from his mistakes, said England legend Geoffrey Boycott as he lambasted the under-performing duo for the home team’s loss to India in the second Test at Edgbaston.
Woakes, the senior-most English bowler in the line-up with an experience of 59 Tests, bowled 82 overs across two games and picked up only three wickets for 290 runs. In three innings that he batted, he tallied 50 runs with a top score of 38.
“It is counter productive to keep the same guys in the team when they are past their sell-by date or not doing enough,” Boycott wrote in his column for British daily ‘The Telegraph’.
“Look at Chris Woakes. His pace is dropping as you would expect as a seamer gets older. He has never been a wicket-taker abroad, where his record is poor. He is good – or has been good – on English pitches, and his batting has been handy at times as a safety valve when others have failed,” Boycott wrote.
He also criticised the team management’s aim to get runs from Woakes, whose primary skill is not batting. The series is currently tied after England won the opener and went down by 336 runs in the second game. “His job should not be to shore up bad batting. Batsmen are there to score runs and bowlers need to take wickets.”
Boycott said Woakes is nowhere close to James Anderson, who was an artist when it came to his craft. “Woakes has been a good cricketer but not a master craftsman like James Anderson, who took buckets full of wickets home and away consistently. Woakes also has a poor record in Australia that is highly unlikely to change at the age of 36,” he said.
In case of Crawley, Boycott was as severe as former England skipper Michael Vaughan by stating that the lanky right-hander can’t get any better. Crawley has one half century in four innings against India so far.
“I don’t think he can change or get better. Batting is in the head and the brain dictates how you approach batting: what shots you attempt, what balls you leave. His faults in technique and thinking are ingrained. A leopard doesn’t change his spots, or maybe Zak does not want to change. He should be approaching his best years but in 56 Tests he has learned nothing. One sparkling innings and numerous failures, with an average of 31, is not good enough.” Boycott observed
