"It’s Going To Be A Long Three Test Matches From Here" – Michael Vaughan Feels England Will Struggle

Former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons England has riled up India and will struggle to cope with the intensity and pressure. He thinks the hosts need a very good team to come back into the series which they currently don’t have at their disposal.

The second Test at Lord’s took the wildest of turns on Day 5 when an unforeseeable lower-order resistance from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami flattened England. The Englishmen couldn’t recover from it, succumbing to a 151-run loss while chasing 272 in the fourth innings.

Joe Root’s men had to bat out only 60 overs but they were up against a fired-up Indian pace attack. There were several verbal volleys thrown around, which saw even the coolest of customers, Bumrah, retort back. In a conversation with BBC, Vaughan mentioned the same.

“England have prodded them. They have fired them up. It will take a very good England team to come back from here and I don’t think they will. It’s going to be a long three Test matches from here,” Vaughan stated.

“They got the tactics completely wrong” – Michael Vaughan

On Day 3, Bumrah delivered some chin music to James Anderson which wasn’t well received. In search of ‘retribution’, the English pacers – Mark Wood in particular – dished out a bumper barrage to the Indian tail-enders, which completely baffled Vaughan.

“They were all over the place. I’ve got no idea what they were thinking. The key when you’re under pressure is to keep things simple. You’re bowling to tailenders, bowl to hit the top of off stump, don’t bowl short and wide,” he added.

Vaughan chastised the experienced duo of Root and James Anderson for the tactics employed considering they are the senior-most in the team.

“Jasprit Bumrah had more fielders on the boundary than Rishabh Pant. How can that happen when you’ve got players like Joe Root and James Anderson who have played over 100 Test matches? They got the tactics completely wrong,” Vaughan concluded.

Luckily for England, they have quite a big break until the next match to gather their thoughts. If they fail to recover, the Men in Blue are likely to run away with the series.

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