India bounced back to winning ways against England, sealing a 106-run victory on Day 4 of the second Test match in Vizag, on Monday. The win saw the hosts level the series 1-1 as the visitors wrapped up for 292 in their 399-run chase. With England continuing with their Bazball approach towards the target, it was evident that it was a matter of time that English batters would hand the Indian’s their wickets. With most were taken by disciplined bowling by India some wickets like skipper Ben Stokes and Joe Root’s became the talking and meme material.
England landed on Indian soil having tasted Bazball success versus Pakistan in Asian conditions where they thrashed team Pakistan 3-0 in their own backyard and desired the same to do to repeat the heroics of 2012 where they last won a test series in India this time around with their newly found technique.
England succeeded in beating India from the jaws of defeat in the first test match at Hyderabad thanks to scintillating knock of 196 runs by middle order batter Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley’s debut haul of 7 wickets in the second innings. However somehow having India to the walls 1-0 at Vizag, England batters found out bizarre ways to get out and literally hand over the second match to India who spurred to mammoth win by 106 runs with the Bazball technique remained all exposed.
This carefree attitude irked many experts round the cricketing globe and Former English Captain now famous commentator especially on ‘X'(formerly Twitter) Micheal Vaughan has harsh words of concern for Ben Stokes and the entire England Team.
Former England skipper Micheal Vaughan criticizes Ben Stokes for Bazball technique failure in the 2nd test at Vizag.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said that while England’s brand of cricket and the ‘Bazball’ ideology is attractive to watch, the visitors need to ensure that they win games too and not just entertain.
Vaughan shed light on how England squandered their chance of winning the Ashes 2023 at home. He also criticized them for being unable to beat an Indian team that was without many of their senior players in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan wrote:
“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.”
Michael Vaughan reckons England will not be able to win the Test series in India if they continue to bat the way they did in Visakhapatnam. The visitors lost the second Test by 106 runs, allowing India to level the series.
Michael Vaughan wants England to play with two pacers.
England have backed a lone pacer and three spinners as their bowling combination in the Test series.
However, looking at how James Anderson bowled in the second Test, Michael Vaughan believes the visitors need to replace one of the spinners with pacer Ollie Robinson in the next game:
“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.”
He added:
“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.”
Vaughan expressed his disappointment on the way Joe Root was dismissed in the second innings in Visakhapatnam and hopes that the star batter backs his natural game and doesn’t force himself into playing the ‘Bazball’ way. The Third Test begins in Rajkot on February 15 and England who is now off to Abu Dhabi would return back hoping to give India a serious challenge in the test series ahead.