Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott expressed his concern with pacer Mark Wood, who was trying to put 100 per cent of his body on every ball in the first Ashes Test, calling it a ‘recipe of injury’. He said that if Wood did not reduce the amount of effort, he would suffer multiple injuries.
Wood was a standout performer for England with the ball, scoring 3/85 with his raw pace and testing Australia’s batsmen in the first innings of the first Ashes Test.
“On the other hand, I thought Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson were brilliant. Mark was consistently quick, accurate and a threat to the opposition. My only concern was that he bowled flat on every ball,” Boycott told The Telegraph on Sunday. He wrote in his column for, “Throwing 100 percent of your body in every delivery is a recipe for injury.”
“All the great fast bowlers in history have bowled very fast, but have given a little bit of themselves, only occasionally. If he can’t retract a touch there could be more injuries right around the corner, which would be sad. He is 32 during this Ashes series and he is a fast bowler’s age dangerously prone to injuries. From now on, fast bowling becomes tough on the body. “We would all like to see him for a long time,” said Boycott, who played 108 Tests for England.
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Boycott was also impressed by Robinson’s 3/58 and 1/13 performances in his first Test in Australia, but is expected to change the pace in his spells.
“At 6ft 5ins, Oli has the advantage of giving more than usual which makes it difficult for the batsmen to pick up the length. They are always thinking whether I can go ahead or not because bounce is a problem. And then they get stuck at the crease which is fatal. The length of repetition on the fast medium on English pitches with a raised seam on the Duke ball will always bring success. But on flatter batting pitches, especially with a Kookaburra ball that has less seam, it is better to mix up the pace a bit.
“Robinson should keep using the deceptively slow ball that David Warner was driving early and caught at mid-off, try to bowl the left-handers a little more around the wicket and surprise the batsmen and Use the try ball repeatedly to guess.”
The 81-year-old felt that Joe Root’s gamble of batting first at The Gabba backfired in spectacular fashion, forcing England to play catch-up throughout the match.
Joe Root deciding to bat first was a gamble. The recent rains had left deep moisture in the pitch and there was green grass in it. I always believed that you put the terms in front of you and use them to your advantage and take the initiative.
“Forward thinking can be too dangerous. Once when Australia got England out for a modest score, they were playing catch-up cricket until England got them out on a par. Which seldom brings success.”
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Boycott concluded by saying that England had to bounce back 1-0 in the Ashes, not with words.
“Let’s face the fact that England made mistakes which didn’t help our team. For starters, your batsmen and bowlers looked weak and they should have had three or four competitive matches before the series. The planning was all wrong. It would be great if you and your team answered with deeds instead of words.”
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