Bell, senior bowlers let England down
Writing for The Telegraph, Geoffery Boycott critiques the performance and approach of England's senior Test players after the hosts lost the second Test at Headingley
ESPNcricinfo staff
03-Jun-2015
In his piece for the Telegraph Geoffery Boycott analyses how Ian Bell's frame of mind and the lack of a set plan from James Anderson and Stuart Broad affected England's fortunes in the second Test against New Zealand
I get the impression that the two senior bowlers, Broad and James Anderson, can do whatever they want. That cannot be right. The captain has to dictate tactics. For example, as soon as Broad gets hit for a boundary he signals he wants a slip taken out and moved to where the ball went. Our captain lets him do it even when he has bowled a bad ball and every cricketer knows you should never set fields for bad bowling.
Ian Bell's confidence and form is at a low ebb after 55 in eight innings. If he had been dismissed every time by a great ball then there would be no problem but that is not the case.
Mentally he is not thinking straight. In the first innings at Headingley Tim Southee bowled him some big outswingers around off stump, teasing him to drive. He let a couple go but then could not resist a push drive and was caught at slip. It was naive and a sucker's dismissal. It was not smart because he had done the same thing at Lord's to the same bowler in the second innings.