While the Indian team was hailed all over the world after a historic win over England at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s, hosts were bombarded with a lot of criticism regarding the batting failure and tactical blunders during the final day of the second Test match.
The former England cricketer David Lloyd who is now a famous commentator slammed England’s top three as he called their style of play as ‘comedy cricket’ and urged Burns, Sibley and Hameed to learn from their Indian counterparts.
“Look at India’s opening pair. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul stand correctly and even though they are facing England’s greatest ever bowler in Anderson, they find ways to defend and score. Our top three seem to have no intention of scoring, they are just on a massive blockathon!” Lloyd told MailOnline.
“It’s a broken record with Root always trying to get them out of an almighty scrape. In 57 years, I have never seen an opening pair stand like Rory Burns and Dom Sibley do. Ever! It’s comedy cricket and that is the biggest issue,” he added.
Sibley has been left out of the England squad for the Third Test following the Lord's debacle.
With this epic win, India went 1-0 up in this five-match Test series with three more Test matches to go. Thus, the cricketer-turned-commentator feels England should fight back in the upcoming matches and should pick the right team for that.
“England have definitely got it in them to hit back. They have to! But first they have to pick the right team. They were spooked by India in this Test and Virat Kohli was all over them like a cheap suit. They couldn’t cope. So now they have to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in,” the 74-year-old said.
The left-hand batting all-rounder then pointed out how the hosts looked too weak which caused Virat Kohli and Co. to get under their skin.
“They will know that wasn’t good enough and the coach will be telling them he expects a far better performance. Pick players with technique and then get right into India. Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri knew they could get under England’s skin. England were too meek and mild. They didn’t have enough leaders to say: ‘Right, we’ll go right back at them,” the Englishman concluded.
(With MailOnline Inputs)
