Boycott slams England batsmen for inability to overcome frailties against spin

Geoffrey Boycott has slammed English batsmen for inability to overcome their spin demons, saying big question marks still remain over Alastair Cook led team's ability to tackle quality spin bowling after India took charge of first Test at Ahmedabad.

Nick Compton, James Anderson and Jonathan Trott fell in the space of 13 balls late on day two in Ahmedabad.

England closed on 41-3, requiring a further 281 to avoid the follow-on after India made 521-8 declared.

"We haven't really proved in our mind or in our technique that we can play spin. You can practise as much as you want, at as many bowlers as you want, in the nets, but when you're out in the middle in a Test match there are four guys round the bat and you're on nought - it's a totally different game," the BBC quoted Boycott, as saying.

"England must take some blame for sending James Anderson out as night-watchman - simply because it was too long for him to survive. Twenty minutes or so is long enough if conditions are benign but, with the ball turning, wickets can fall in clusters - which is exactly what happened," he added.

"Part of it's in the head. Everything looks alright and suddenly we're three down. We've had 18 overs of England batting and we're talking about the follow-on, which tells us everything. It's not looking good," he said.