Michael Vaughan on England Cricket Team: Former England captain Michael Vaughan has torn into the current English team for being “complacent after a good period” following their 8-wicket loss to Sri Lanka at The Oval.
England couldn’t have a perfect Test summer as they, after winning five Tests in a row, lost the last Test against Sri Lanka. This was Sri Lanka’s only fourth Test match win in England and second at The Oval.
England had scored 325 in their first innings and bowled Sri Lanka out for 263. However, the match changed after that as England batters got out to aggressive shots and were bundled for only 156, setting the visitors a target of 219 runs, which Sri Lanka chased down with 8 wickets in hand courtesy of opener Pathum Nissanka’s 127.
I Felt That They Disrespected Test Cricket And Sri Lanka: Michael Vaughan on England Cricket Team
Vaughan reckons the hosts got complacent after a first innings lead. He pointed out two previous examples, against Australia and India, of similar instances where England lost after taking an upper hand early in the game.
In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan wrote,
“I felt that they disrespected Test cricket and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being over-aggressive with both the bat and in their field placings. England have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period—I think of the start of the Ashes or earlier this year in Rajkot—and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for the tougher Tests that lie in wait in 2025. There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia.”
“For me, the intensity and concentration in the big moments were missing this week. It was all a bit flimsy, cocky even. They took the mickey out of the game. The answer in Test cricket’s hottest moments cannot always be attack, attack, attack,” he added.
The 2005 Ashes-winning captain also questioned interim captain Ollie Pope and the bowlers for their “over-aggressive” fields. He opined that the field settings England used weren’t required in this game.
“I felt England’s bowling was fine this week, but I thought the over-aggressive fields they went for did the bowlers a disservice and put them on the back foot immediately. They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this wasn’t the match or pitch for that.
“This was a top-of-off pitch, two or three slips and a gully, with extra cover in. They had six slips, short leg and leg slip. It was almost as if they had 650 on the board, but they had half of that,” Vaughan asserted.
Next month, England will tour Pakistan for three Tests.
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