Michael Vaughan, former England captain, feels that Team India’s win over Australia will give England hopes for the upcoming Ashes and said that India has left him with an egg on his face.
After the batting debacle at Adelaide and with Virat Kohli not being available for the rest of the series, many pundits along with Micheal Vaughan predicted that India will get hammered by the hosts and suffer a 4-0 whitewash.
However Team India led by Ajinkya Rahane, despite being battered and bruised, bounced backed strongly and showed great character and application to register a historic victory at Melbourne (MCG) and a famous draw at Sydney (SCG).
With only 3 players from the XI that played in Adelaide taking the field in Brisbane, India pulled off a stunning feat, becoming the first team since Sir Viv Richards' West Indies side in 1988-89 to defeat Australia at their fortress, Gabba.
With a 3 wicket victory over Australia at Gabba, visitors retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, by winning the Test series 2-1.
Micheal Vaughan was one of the critics to predict a 4-0 series loss for India but his prediction was proven wrong, on which he said India has left him with eggs on my face.
"I predicted Australia would win the series 4-0 after Adelaide, and with good reason. India looked shot after that match and with all the selection issues they had, even India's most one-eyed fans would not have predicted a comeback. Well, they have left me with egg on my face," Michael Vaughan wrote for The Telegraph.
Vaughan believes that there is no problem in being proved wrong and said that when the quality of cricket on display was as high as it was in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“But honestly? I don't care. When you have cricket that good, and remarkable performances from rookie players such as Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, and Shardul Thakur, I have no problem in being proved wrong." he said.
Micheal Vaughan, 46, pointed out that India has proved that there are vulnerabilities in this Australian side and said that this should give encouragement to England ahead of Ashes.
"This is a result that will pose some serious questions of Australia and give England real hope for the Ashes. Joe Root needs to win a series Down Under and India have proved that there are vulnerabilities in this Australian side - ones that we didn't really know existed a month or so ago," said Vaughan
"That should all give England encouragement as they seek a first series win in Australia since 2011. Less promisingly, the events of the last few weeks underline just how difficult it will be for them in India next month," he added.
England was hammered 5-0 in 2013-14 and 4-0 in 2017-18 in the Ashes series in Australia with their last series victory 3-1 coming in 2010-11.
(The Telegraph Inputs)
