Former England captain Michael Vaughan has hit out at Indian skipper Virat Kohli for his strange tactics in the ongoing Headingley Test.
According to Vaughan, Ishant Sharma was by far the worst Indian seamer on Day 1 and it wasn’t a shrewd call to open the bowling with the lanky seamer on the second day.
Ishant had a poor outing on both days at Headingley. He conceded 92 runs in his 22 overs without taking a wicket as England piled up 423/8 at the close of play on Day 2, extending their first-innings lead to a massive 345 runs.
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“You are looking at the start of the day’s play. Ishant Sharma was by far the worst Indian seamer yesterday. You start with him the next day, in an hour that you have to win, you (should) surely go to your best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. Shami didn’t take the new ball yesterday for whatever reason. And Virat will have to answer it and he will have to answer it quite heavily,” Vaughan said on Test Match Special podcast.
He also questioned Kohli and his men’s ability to adapt in different conditions.
“The best teams in the world adapt. This Indian team are a good team, but they can’t be up there with the great teams unless they are actually willing to accept that they need to arrive and do things differently.”
Opting to bat first, the visitors got bowled out for a paltry 78 in the first innings at Headingley. It was an abysmal performance as none of the batsmen managed to touch the 20-run mark.
Vaughan was surprised by India’s performance, especially as they came into the game on the back of a stunning 151-run victory in the second Test at Lord’s.
“I think they should be careful that they don’t do things for show. For me, I saw at Lord’s, I thought it was brilliant that all their team came into the Long Room to greet that partnership (between Bumrah and Shami). I like that, in a team, I want to see that. But you can’t do things like that and arrive the week after and put in a performance like this. That doesn’t happen in real high-class cricket. That looks to me now like all histrionics and antiques, it just looks like it was for show. A team that is really together and fight in with that crunch of the situation, they don’t play like what we have seen India play in the last two days," he stated.
“What really has happened to India in the last two days? They have arrived and played in these two days like a really poor cricket team,” Vaughan further remarked.
