Legendary opener Geoffrey Boycott did not see England's Boxing Day Test victory as a fairytale. Instead, he offered it as a clear judgment on how the game is currently being played, which he believes is incorrect.

On a spicy pitch in Melbourne, England won the toss and opted to bowl first and reaped huge rewards as Australia was bowled out for 152 runs as Josh Tongue took 5/45. In response, England was bowled out for 110 runs as Michael Neser took four wickets and Scott Boland took three wickets.

Australia was kept on a leash in the second innings, as they made 132 runs, with Travis Head top-scoring with 46 runs. Brydon Carse took four wickets, and Ben Stokes took three wickets. Set at 175 runs to win, England took the cavalier approach to the chase.

Jacob Bethell made 40 as England made 178/6 and won the game by 4 wickets inside two days.

Analyzing the game, Geoff Boycott dismissed any suggestion of luck and argued the result was built on fundamentals.

Boycott also claimed that the demands of Test cricket currently conflict with the way batters are trained. He cited the prevalence of white-ball forms and the associated pitches.

“England won the Boxing Day Test because they played better cricket than Australia. It was no fluke.

One-day matches are played on the flattest batting pitches the groundsmen can provide, so the batsmen can dominate by hitting hard at the ball. It is absolutely the opposite of learning to bat against the moving ball on seaming pitches,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

According to Boycott, the problem is not exclusive to any one opposition or series. He feels that the current schedule is undervaluing England's own players. He also slammed the ECB for choosing revenue over long-term excellence.

“Our top batsmen play very little county cricket and almost nothing on tours outside Test matches. Nets alone will not help batsmen master the technique of playing the moving ball. Sadly, the ECB suits have them playing more and more 50-over, T20, and Hundred cricket because it brings in lots of money. And we know how money is their idea of success, not winning the Ashes or being the best team in the world,” he wrote further.

Boycott used Joe Root’s example to put his point across.

“Joe Root is England’s best technical batsman, but he had two failures trying to play in a normal style. It just goes to show how modern batsmen do not really have a clue how to defend on a seaming pitch,” he added.

However, Australia received the most critical evaluation. Boycott claimed that he and other former players had been raising issues for a while.

“Some of us ex-player ‘has-beens’ have been saying before and during this tour that the Aussie batting is ordinary, dependent on Smith and Head. That batting line-up in the second inning showed how poor some of them are. I don’t know, but what I did see was some awful batting,” Boycott said.

While acknowledging the impact of England’s seamers, Boycott ended where he began, with blunt clarity.

“I take nothing away from the quality of the England seamers, but some of those dismissals were shockers. It was awful stuff,” he summed up.

(The Telegraph inputs)