"Then you are an idiot" - Geoffrey Boycott strongly disagrees with the 'Bazball' approach 

Former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott slammed the concept of 'Bazball' being a new way forward in Test cricket. The brute and unabashed approach has caused quite a stir in the cricketing community with divided opinion at the fore regarding its effectiveness and longevity.

The England cricket team have wholeheartedly embraced the notion and they have results under their belt as credibility.

The captain-head coach duo of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have instilled a lot of belief in the team which was arguably at rock bottom following the Ashes drubbing and a series loss to West Indies earlier this year.

Implying that the idea of taking on bowlers with the new ball makes no sense whatsoever, Boycott said on the Vaughany & Tuffers podcast:

“If you think you are going to plunder the best bowlers in the world with a new conker when they are fresh then you are an idiot.”

Boycott also tore into the England top order, which has been an area of concern for the team for quite a while now. The former batter said:

“There are no top-three batsmen that know how to play the new ball, stay in, create the platform. Part of your job is to get through the new ball for your team - protect the stroke-makers in the middle-order who can take the game away from the opposition. Part of the job is to score runs.”

England have seemingly settled with the top three of Alex Lees, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. While none have arguably cemented their spot, the search has been long with several candidates having come and gone.

Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed and Dom Sibley are just some of the names that were given a run of matches at the top of the order. The team even stirred things up by promoting Joe Root to No.3 for a while, but he was reinstated to his original No.4 spot once Ben Stokes took charge of the side.

"There are too many ordinary bowlers" - Geoffrey Boycott on the current England talent pool

England are set for a major transition period when it comes to their bowling unit once the veteran duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad step away. The pair have been aided by the likes of Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Olly Stone, Craig Overton and Matthew Potts in the recent past, but replacing the senior duo will be a huge task.

Commenting on the current state of bowlers in England, Boycott said:

"There are too many ordinary bowlers. If we keep having early season matches with grass and moisture on the surface where little medium pacers bowl people out, that isn’t going to help England be successful. There are too many ordinary bowlers. A lot of the money they [the ECB] get from Sky is because of Test matches - and county cricket makes good Test players, or it should do."

The talk of Bazball has already stirred up the England camp as well as the South African camp ahead of their first Test at Lord's (August 17).

Is Geoffrey Boycott right in his assessment of the Bazball? Let us know what you think.