England won a riveting contest at The Lord's against India in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. Despite the 22-run win, England opener Zak Crawley is facing is heat for his repeated failures. England's legendary player Geoffrey Boycott analysed his dismissals in the third Test and advised Ben Stokes to drop him from the side.
"How many more chances is Crawley going to get? He has learned nothing in his 57 Tests. A waft in the first innings caught behind and a front-foot drive in the second innings to a wide sucker ball caught at gully. It was just a replay of too many of his dismissals. Time to go. Five hundreds and an average of 31 is not good enough," Boycott wrote in his column on Telegraph.
So far in the series, Crawley has scored 128 runs from six innings at an average of 21.33. His only notable knock came in the opening Test of the series.
Boycott feels that opposition bowlers look forward to the opportunity to bowl at him. He does want Crawley on the flight to Australia for Ashes 2025-26.
"Most opposition bowlers can’t wait to get their sweaters off to bowl at him. Can you imagine what the Australian seamers are thinking about this winter’s Ashes series? If Starc doesn’t get you, Hazlewood and Cummins will," he further stated.
Boycott defends Pope, wants him to give up 'Bazball'
Meanwhile, Boycott has backed Ollie Pope amidst criticism. After the ton in opening game, Pope hasn't crossed the fifty-run mark. He has 186 runs from six innings. Boycott talked about how Pope is trying to please coach Brendon McCullum by approaching an ultra-aggressive approach. He wants the vice-captain to do away with the 'Bazball' approach and play traditional cricket which suits him.
"I hear and read comments about dropping Ollie Pope and replacing him with Jacob Bethell. Pope has done better for England than Crawley. Ollie was Stokes’ personal choice at three. At the time, number four was taken by Joe Root and number six by the captain so not many options. Early on the captain and coach sold Bazball to all the players and Ollie seems to have bought into it 100 per cent and is so keen to show he is a disciple. Perhaps he feels he must play positive and aggressively or he won’t keep his place," he said.
"He needs to go back to basic batting which is to asses the situation and bat accordingly, not bat slavishly to an ideology or how he thinks the captain and coach want him to play. The coach Brendon McCullum is on record recently saying that England don’t talk about Bazball and need to finetune their approach to batting. So no excuses any more. Stop giving your wicket away to stupid over-aggressive shots because you can do better and England want more from you," he added.
The fourth Test will be played at The Old Trafford, Manchester. England have never lost a Test against India at the venue.