I expect you’re not alone in your dislike for building an innings.
On the positive way of looking at things, England only won 32% of the tests Boycott played in, England over all tests have won 37%, the Stokes era is 63% to date.
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On the other hand - I saw him hit a masterfull 150 and it wasn’t a slow one either.
Very different game back then - from my recollection, there seemed to be more drawn test matches as distinct from the binary win/lose which seems more the norm with the current day tests.
Going back to those times I always preferred the Ted Dexter approach.
Like Bazball today I think it is essential if test cricket is going to survive.
To @BruceW 's point above, nowadays, I don’t think the public has any appetite for Test match snooze-athons any more, where teams would almost set out to draw from D1, or declare via shutting the match out by batting too long, something which is frowned upon in league cricket (even punished).
But, what pains, is when the likes of Crawley don’t play to a situation and continue with their fly-fishing. There are enough bad balls to have a go at in Test matches, you don’t need to chase the higher-risk shots. Someone down in Canterbury needs to show him some footage of Chris Tavare playing Test cricket 
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Noooooooo… 
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Different approach & expectations from everyone involved. Pitches prepared differently. Had boycott (in his prime at the time) been prepared to play for Mike Deness in all likelihood he would have been the 1st English batsman to pass 10,000 test runs at a time when teams weren’t trying to make test cricket relevant again. In the end it depends what you want, a bloke wafting away to no great effect or a bloke building an innings. Our wafter is occasionally worth watching. He’d be especially good to watch v Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner & Colin Croft. To quote the Telegraph ‘Boycott’s experience and determination were crucial in his ability to score runs against this attack’.
It will be interesting to see if England even try to save the game today.
If they don’t, the BBC may have to edit Michael Vaughan out of their coverage 
Is there an exploding head emoji?
I probably missed his heyday. I was at the last day of the 1980 Centenary test; probably the most boring day of Test cricket that I have been to (though other grim days are available). Set 370 to win, England batted for a draw, Boycs 128 not out. Can’t help feeling today’s team would have gone for it.
But I do recall watching whilst sitting on the hallowed turf just inside the boundary (those were the days!) and the reaction to John Arlott’s last commentary. Both of which made it a special day.
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I agree re Crawley, it is looking like he may be on his way out but he and Duckett have been successful together and a key part of the England ‘project’. They complement each other well. The selectors and captain are also generally very loyal. Bethel is waiting in the wings but not likely to open. Smith to open maybe, but that is a big demand on a 'keeper. Pope is a place or two too high already at 3 for me and Root won’t open again. Stokes has the technique but is very short of runs just now. I think they might stick with Crawley because of a lack of an alternative.
I’d be more worried about the bowling, from this unit and what is in the wings. Tongue short of Test class in my view, Woakes not effective (more on that later) and Carse/Stokes taking a huge workload. Bashir doing no more or less than expected. Archer is going to be back-but how much work can he take? Stone/Atkinson/Wood all injured. Hull too callow, Ollie Robinson way out of favour. Overton? Potts? None really inspire…but but but…
We aren’t playing on ‘English’ wickets! I know it has been hot but why aren’t we playing to our strengths of creating pitches that allow a bit of movement. We can’t create swing conditions overhead but these tracks in the first two matches aren’t helping what our bowlers do best in my view. Other nations prep pitches to suit their teams, we never seem to. Maybe Lords could summon some pace and bounce for a change?
Just my two penneth. However if England do save the game it will actually be a victory for Bazball. As per my previous post, England have created a culture where an opposition feels they need to set 608 to play them out of the game. For all his sublime batting Gill will be roasted as captain if they run out of time to win today.
Test cricket. Never dull any more
Bruce
PS Great series playing out WIndies vs Australia. From the highlights the grounds are virtually empty despite a good showing by the home team. That is what we should be really upset about.
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It was around 1972 in a county game.
True story - I spotted him in a telephone kiosk at the ground later that day, in disguise with a ridiculous false beard on !! I waited until he came out and asked him for his autograph. A mild look of disdain came forth and the immortal comment ‘trust you young man !’ I got the autograph (long since lost, alas).
Agree about the bowling. Didn’t think India’s second innings particularly exciting (stumper aside), Gill surely let India bat too long/not quickly enough and surprisingly doesn’t appear to have looked at the weather forecast (which I’m sure most fans did). It’s due to brighten up I think but it feels like we’re dependant on the weather to save the game. I don’t know where we go to find world class bowlers. Fast bowling’s not for the faint hearted and we don’t play cricket in state schools these days.
The weather is playing a blinder at the moment.
80 overs now expected. 7:00 pm finish. So plenty for England to do.
Definitely
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Fair play to him!
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Having read t’internet newsflows today and also a couple of the newspapers, it seems the sporting journo’s have been out buying knife-sharpeners over the weekend, and perhaps with justification. It seems we’ve reached the point nowadays, where the tourists’ seam bowlers are as good as/if not better than our own in most conditions.
One used to expect this with the Aussies, and the WIndies team with the quicks (often schooled in the CC), but India now appear to have plentiful depth of talent in this area. Were England to ask for a ‘green-top’ for one of the forthcoming Tests, I fear for what might happen.
And I don’t think Archer is the answer to any of this, especially not on the dry ‘roadway’ strips seen so far. I’m baffled as to how you can consider a bowler for selection with so little recent form & activity behind them.
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Probably need to look at the spin department as well. Maybe time to give Ahmed or Dawson a game. It would certainly boost the batting.
The big weakness with Bazball appears to be not the way we play but if you have a decent game once in a blue moon they’ll keep selecting you.
I now wonder if selectors are becoming complacent.
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I think it can be a bit hard to criticise selectors for their choices in the pace bowling department when so many are injured. Then I ask myself about the overall management of promising fast bowlers and wonder if that needs to be reviewed. I also think the selectors and England management need to be looking at how players are in the Test squad and then not released to play. Archer, Bethell etc could have done that last week.
As for India having more pace bowling to choose from, well they have a population of 1.4 billion, and cricket is so far and away their number one sport it is perhaps unsurprising they are producing a depth of talent in every aspect of the game. Cricket in the UK is low down the list of sports played (less than 1/4 million, fewer than Basketball, Netball and Badminton), and the investment at County level is precarious.
Bruce
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