Trott blasts ex-players for their ‘over the top harangues’

London: England batsman Jonathan Trott has urged players to put up better performances in the remaining three Test matches of the India series, which would be a befitting reply to all the ex-players who have criticised them heavily following their Ahmedabad Test thrashing.

Trott said players must avoid developing a siege mentality in the face of negative comments from the likes of Ian Botham, Michael Vaughan and Geoff Boycott. Stuart Broad accused ex-players of being negative, which provoked a reaction on Twitter from Botham, and, now Trott believes England players need their performances to speak for them. “Obviously they are very passionate and want England to do well but you have got to realise that no one’s perfect,” the Sun quoted Trott, as saying when asked about Botham’s criticism. “Sometimes people think the game is not as good as when they played or the game’s better now there’s a lot of discussion. But, at the end of the day, it’s still a game of cricket, 22 yards separates the ball from the batsmen,” he added. “We’ve got to play better, we realise that and we’re not hiding from the fact we didn’t score enough runs in our first innings in the First Test and let India get too many,” he said. Former skipper Vaughan claimed England have learned nothing in their attempts to play spin better and could lose the Test series 4-0. Ex-England coach David Lloyd reckoned Trott himself should be dropped for the Second Test, and Boycott accused our batsmen of lacking self-belief and skill. ANI