Michael Vaughan, former England captain said that he doesn’t see Joe Root’s team making a comeback after losing the 2nd test from a crushing margin at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Vaughan also said that the Indian team is fired up after scripting an astonishing comeback on Day 5 and is unlikely to be stopped by the English men in the upcoming matches.
England restricted India to 181 for 6 on Day 4, India depended on wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant for scoring runs for the team but Pant fell early.
However, India scripted an unbelievable comeback after Mohammad Shami’s unbeaten 50 and a solid 34 coming from Jasprit Bumrah’s bat. The Indian tail-enders built a solid 89 run, not out a partnership for the 9th wicket.
Team India returned to the ground after the lunch all charged up. Shami and Bumrah took 2 early wickets as they dismissed both England openers for a duck and then kept taking wickets at regular intervals and bowled out England for 120 in 51.5 overs.
Team India now leads the 5-test match series with 1-0.
“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 told BBC.
Jasprit Bumrah and James Anderson were involved in a heated verbal battle on the 4th Day of Lord’s test when the Indian pacer peppered the England veteran with bouncers.
England gave it back when Bumrah was batting but the Indian pacer frustrated the hosts with a game-changing partnership with Shami.
Indian captain Virat Kohli acknowledged the fact that the on-field banter with England did give their bowlers the motivation to go for the win on the last day with not much time left on the clock.
Vaughan criticized captain Joe Root’s tactics as England allowed the Indian tail-enders Bumrah-Shami to build an 89*-run strong partnership towards the end of the 2nd innings. Team India went from 194 for 7 to 298 for 8 before the Indian captain declared the innings, giving England a target of 272 runs.
“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,” Vaughan said.
“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 added.
