Former skipper Michael Vaughan fears Englishmen might become a Test team who do all the hard work and entertain everyone, but don’t actually succeed much
England captain Ben Stokes after missing a difficult catch on Day Three of the second Test against India in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Pics/Getty Images
Former skipper Michael Vaughan is worried England will become a side that doesn’t win much despite putting in the hard yards, adding that the team’s batting unit needs to strike a balance between playing aggressive and traditional cricket to succeed in India. Since adopting the Bazball approach, England have enjoyed a good run but the same no-holds-barred approach has also cost them several matches and series, including the Ashes last year.
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Improved a lot under Stokes
“England have become a difficult team to criticise too much because they are so good to watch. Every game they play has us all absolutely gripped, and they have improved massively under Ben Stokes,” Vaughan wrote in his coulmn for The Telegraph. “However, I do worry that they might become a team who do all this great work only to not actually win very much. They didn’t win the Ashes when they should have done and now they have let India back into a series when they still have a load of big names, including Virat Kohli, to come back.”
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Need to bat better
England had taken a 1-0 lead in the five-match series in India, but Ben Stokes and his men let the hosts draw parity in the second Test as all their batters, barring Zak Crawley, were unable to get big scores. “England will not win the series if they bat the way they did in Visakhapatnam. I actually think the batsmen need to take a leaf out of the bowlers’ book. With ball in hand, they have been quite traditional at times, aggressive at others, and they have gone up and down the gears in terms of how attacking their fields have been,” said Vaughan.
England had pulled off a dramatic 28-run win in the series opener on the back of vice-captain Ollie Pope’s epic second-innings knock of 196 and left-arm spinner Tom Hartley’s seven-wicket haul in the second innings. “The young spinners have been fantastic but, for me, James Anderson’s brilliant performance shows that they have to get another seamer, probably Ollie Robinson, in the side with him,” added Vaughan.
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