Birmingham, July 7 Former England skipper Michael Vaughan expressed sadness over the side’s 336-run defeat to India in the ongoing five-match series at Edgbaston, saying the hosts were back to playing their old ways after showing the ‘Bazball with brains’ way of play at Headingley.
England had won the series opener in Leeds by five wickets, chasing a massive 378. But in Birmingham, they were outplayed in all departments by India to suffer a heavy defeat, as the visitors bounced back to level the series 1-1 ahead of the third game at Lord’s, starting on Thursday.
“If we are honest, England have been hammered this week. Apart from four hours on the third day when Harry Brook and Jamie Smith batted beautifully, they have been totally dominated by India. It was a performance that worried me greatly.
“I fear they used the first match as absolute evidence of how to play Test cricket. They showed great skill in that win, but there was also a lot of fortune involved. They turned up here and thought they should do everything the same way, and it has backfired.
“You should not base your method entirely on a week’s performance when you have had the rub of the green. You win games relying on fortune, but not big series like this one or the Ashes. This is an experienced team now, and they have to grow and be better.
“This team has given us so much joy over the last three years, and they can achieve great things over the next six months. After Headingley, it looked like they had improved, and we called it Bazball with brains. This week, they were back to their bad old ways,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph on Monday.
He also suggested that England opener Zak Crawley should take a leaf out of India skipper Shubman Gill’s batting style and look to improve at Lord’s. Barring a knock of 65 at Headingley, Crawley has been out of sorts. Gill, meanwhile, started the series with a knock of 147 before being the main driving force in India’s win at Edgbaston with scores of 269 and 161.
“There have been many players who have frustrated fans – including me – over the years, but he is right up there as the most frustrating I can remember. And in my time watching, playing for and covering England, he is the player luckiest to have won as many caps as he has.
“He has to count himself fortunate to have played 56 games while scoring just five hundreds and averaging 31. Among all the openers in history with more than 2,500 runs, he has the lowest average: 30.3. Crawley has batted 102 times in Test cricket, and been out in single digits 42 times.
“Having shown he could do it at Headingley, Crawley had such a great opportunity to change his approach. But it was one step forward, two back. If he continues to play a shot off a ball outside off stump, he will continue snicking off. If he can be aligned like he was at Leeds and keeps his discipline, he can have a really good year in Test cricket.
“It is possible to change. Look at Shubman Gill. He came into this series averaging 35, and four innings later, he averages 42. He has done that because of his mindset and strategy. He recognised that he was vulnerable to the lbw, and that his hands were away from his body.
“But he has been tighter, and that has allowed him to bat for long periods with greater control, while still putting the bad ball away. He has focused on defence, then attacked later,” concluded Vaughan.
(Auto generated news from IANS Feed. This has not been edited by enewstime desk)
