Ex-Aussie captain Taylor points out "confusion" in England's batting, urges team to follow skipper Stokes' conservative play

Melbourne [Australia], December 9 (ANI): Former Australian captain Mark Taylor feels that the main problem in the first two Ashes Tests for England's batters is not the batters themselves, but rather how "mixed" the messaging is within the group, and urged the team to follow skipper Ben Stokes' actions as a batter rather than his messaging to go all out against an Aussie bowling line-up which is ageing and had been depleted of Josh Hazlewood and skipper Pat Cummins for the first two Tests.

England's attacking 'Bazball' approach as a batting unit did not pay them any dividends in the first two Ashes Tests. At the same time, they faced a helpless, two-day loss at Perth, courtesy of a Travis Head form; none of their batters, except centurion Joe Root, Zak Crawley and skipper Ben Stokes, managed to bat out for really long. After giving Australia a 177-run first-innings lead with 511, there was no coming back for England, as, except for a 96-run stand between Stokes and Will Jacks, they fell apart for 241, setting Australia an easy 69-run target to win.

Speaking to WWOS, Taylor said, "I do not think it is necessarily the personnel with their batting. I think it is more their approach. I feel watching England that the messaging is a bit mixed, and I think they are getting confused with how they actually want to play at times."

"They are being told to be expansive, to put their inhibitions aside and play with limited accountability, but you cannot do that. You cannot do that in Test match cricket, because people will always hold you to account, and so they should. That is why it is called Test cricket, and I think they are finding that out the hard way here in Australia," he added.

Taylor feels that the team should follow Stokes' more conservative style of play rather than his words encouraging the team to go hard from ball one. He pointed out England skipper's ability to see off the first spell, bat for a long time and "crush the ball anywhere" later on once settled.