‘So, The Hundred will help them win WTC’: WV Raman slams pundits blaming IPL behind England's ‘shambolic’ show in Ashes
Joe Root and his bunch were thrashed 4-0 in the five-match series, losing the final Test at Hobart by 146 runs after a dramatic batting collapse.
Former India cricketer WV Raman took a dig against pundits and ex-England players who claimed the Indian Premier League (IPL) to be the reason behind the dismal show by England in Ashes.
Joe Root and his bunch were thrashed 4-0 in the five-match series, losing the final Test at Hobart by 146 runs after a dramatic batting collapse.
Raman in a series of tweets slammed the performance by England, calling it “shambolic”. He also took a dig against former England captains for particularly attacking the IPL, stating “we are to assume that The Hundred will help them win WTC.”
After England's defeat in the final Test at Hobart, former England captain David Gower slammed the players for preferring IPL over the country. Speaking on BT Sport, Gower noted that Root is not getting enough support from his teammates.
"Joe Root finds himself with people unavailable, because where are they? The IPL. What good is that for English Test cricket?! This is the oldest, more important form of the game, we need to defend it," he said.
Meanwhile, Australian great Ian Chappell feels the just-concluded Test series between India and South Africa involved the kind of emotion that the lop-sided Ashes lacked completely.
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Beaten comprehensively in the three-match series opener, South Africa bounced back in style to claim the rubber 2-1 after convincing victories in the second and third Test against their fancied opponents.
"South Africa surprisingly defeated India in an old-fashioned dogfight that included some enthralling cricket. It also involved ample emotion of the sort that has notably been missing from an Ashes contest that has been surprisingly uncontroversial so far," Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo.
The former Australia captain added, "The South Africa series featured bowling domination on pitches that were probably too much in favour of the fielding side, but there was also some exquisite batting."
-with PTI inputs
