India Without Ravindra Jadeja Gives England A Sniff: Michael Vaughan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has once again taken a U-turn as far as his prediction for the India-England Test series is concerned following the tourists’ brilliant batting display in Chennai.

Vaughan is notorious for making outrageous pre-series predictions on Twitter. The former England captain had previously predicted that India would lose the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia by a margin of 0-4.

However, Ajinkya Rahane and his boys made Vaughan eat the humble pie as they scripted a comeback for the ages by beating Australian in Melbourne and Brisbane to not only retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but also the series 2-1.

Leading into the India-England series, Michael Vaughan made a rare prediction in the home side’s favor, claiming that the Virat Kohli-led unit will win the four-match rubber 3-0.

However, with England batsman putting an outstanding show against the Indian bowling attack in the first innings of the ongoing Test, Vaughan has once again made changed his tone.

Though he did not give a new series scoreline, he has reckoned that with India not having the services of Ravindra Jadeja due to injury, it gives the Joe Root-led unit a sniff.

“Think I may need to change my series prediction … !!! #India without @imjadeja in these conditions gives England a sniff … Plus this England Test team are playing high-quality Test cricket !!!#INDvENG,” Vaughan tweeted.

Think I may need to change my series prediction … !!! #India without @imjadeja in these conditions gives England a sniff … Plus this England Test team are playing high quality Test cricket !!! #INDvENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 6, 2021

That said, England, on the back of a brilliant double-hundred by skipper Joe Root and stellar contributions from Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes, have asserted themselves into a position of strength. The home side has struggled to make any sort of impact with their bowling on what has been a pretty placid track in Chennai.

In Jadeja’s absence, India included the likes of Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem in their playing 11 but the duo has proved to be largely ineffective thanks to their inability to bowl with discipline.

The visitors have racked up in excess of 500 runs- the second instance of any team doing so against India in the last 60 Tests.

Also Read: Twitter Hails Joe Root After He Completes His 5th Test Double Century