"Never a good sweeper of the ball" - Geoffrey Boycott reflects on Jonny Bairstow's shot selection on Day 4 of IND vs ENG 3rd Test

Former England opening batter Geoffrey Boycott has called Jonny Bairstow out for playing the sweep shot in the fourth innings of the third Test against India at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot. Boycott observed that Bairstow plays the ball straight well, but reckons that the shot was down to pressure.

Bairstow, who has struggled in all three Tests, played the sweep shot when on four against left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. The keeper-batter contemplated a review after speaking to Joe Root briefly but walked back without taking it.

In his column for The Telegraph, the 83-year-old wrote:

"This match alone all three got out LBW sweeping at balls pitched on the stumps. Bairstow is never a good sweeper of the ball. He gets very few runs with it and has got out before in India trying to sweep. Jonny is a fantastic straight hitter of a cricket ball but pressure makes batsmen do silly things."

The Yorkshire lad felt England's struggles in India are down to the middle-order underperforming, given they average only 20 runs each. On this, he wrote:

"The new young spinners have done okay. It is the batting that is not firing. The middle order has been the engine room for England for the last two years but at the moment Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes have not contributed enough runs and too often they have given their wickets away by trying to score too quickly. Any team would struggle with a middle order averaging only 20 runs each."

Having conceded a 126-run lead after their first innings, England were playing catch-up cricket for the remaining part of the game. With 557 set for the tourists to win, they collapsed under the weight of it to slip to a 434-run loss.

"Runs were of no use at that stage of the game" - Geoffrey Boycott

Geoffrey Boycott (Image Credits: Getty)

Boycott also reflected that Ben Stokes and Joe Root didn't need to play the reverse in the fourth innings as scoring was not the priority at that stage. He added:

"Root and Stokes tried to save the match by defending for 40 and 39 balls but then inexplicably couldn’t resist trying to sweep balls pitched on the stumps. Why? Runs were of no use at that stage of the game."

England's premier batter Root finds himself under pressure after managing only 77 runs in six innings at 12.83.