Sir Ian Botham says England should appear into their Evaluation team to bed in a few young talent as they build for the future and plan for the Ashes in Australia in two years time.
England attracted the summer’s Ashes series later clinching a win at the fourth and fifth Test at The Oval, but Australia keep the urn together with the 2-2 tie.
Botham believes the outcome is a fair reflection on the show, including that Steve Smith and his staggering 774 runs for the series has shown the gap between both sides.
“Things swung in that very first Test at Edgbaston,” said Botham. “Australia were 122-8 and then built those partnerships using the tailenders.
“Steve Smith was magnificent. And he’s become the standout for the whole series.
“I actually mentioned, if he doesn’t fail today, he’s not human. He did, by his standards, neglect [scoring 23] but he’s been awesome.
“If you look at the 2 sides, batting was a problem for both, particularly the top order. Ben Stokes was Steve Smith for Australia along with the exception for England.
“I feel the pace attack of Australia has been superb. They have played better cricket.
“But England are at a fairly good location generally, they simply require a bit of fine tuning.
“Together with the bowling, we are in a similar situation for Australia, we’ve got lots of young talent coming but England need to check out the batting line-up.
“Are they really going to look at younger players, which I think they should do? It is two or three years till we are back in Australia for the Ashes – and – you’ll want to have a negative that is settled, therefore now’s the time.
“In New Zealand, it’s a excellent chance to experiment, have a look and see what these young men can do. Zac Crawleyplayers like this, who everyone has been discussing.”
In terrific his mate David Gower stints as broadcasters for Sky Sports after 25 decades of support botham spoke, and he reflected on his time behind the mike.
“It has really been interesting,” he added. “It had been the start of Sky and that I stated at the moment,’what exactly are we going to perform? Where are we likely to go with this?’
“They said, we want to bring the game into the front room of the people at home viewing. I think we’ve got close to that.
“It’s been a fantastic trip. There’s youthful blood available time to proceed. But it’s been wonderful; the parts of the world we’ve seen, the matches we’ve seen and the players who have surfaced.”
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