Former skipper Michael Vaughan has expressed his amazement after seeing the transformation of some of the England players under the new management of captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
England pulled off a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over India in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston on Tuesday (July 5).
The hosts were set a target of 378 in the fourth innings and they overhauled it without breaking a sweat on the back of sparkling centuries from Joe Root (142* off 173 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (114* off 145 balls).
See Also: Wanted India to set a target of 450, says Ben Stokes after England’s win in Edgbaston Test
“You make some good points about this fearless way of playing. You play against any sporting team that doesn’t care about losing — they are hard to play against. It’s a nightmare, cause this mentality keeps coming at you, players keep being aggressive,” Vaughan said while speaking on Cricbuzz with Harsha Bhogle.
Before Root and Bairstow took the Indian bowlers to the cleaners, the duo of Alex Lees (56 off 65 balls) and Zak Crawley (46 off 76 balls) set the tone with an opening stand of 107 runs.
In particular, Lees dominated the Indian attack at the top, hitting 8 boundaries, before an unfortunate run-out cut short his stay in the middle.
Citing the example of Lees, Vaughan said the Yorkshire lad used to bat like Geoffrey Boycott but he has now begun to attack.
“Players like Alex Lees, who only 6 weeks ago was batting like Geoffrey Boycott — I’m not having a go at Geoffrey but he wanted to bat for long periods of time and work their magic over many, many hours of batting for a 100.”
“Alex Lees has come out batting aggressively, he’s only averaging 24 but you can see the mentality change in him,” said Vaughan.
India were miles ahead in the game, having taken a first-innings lead of 132 runs. However, Stokes and company managed to stun the visitors with their fearless approach.
“You can see it change across the whole side and when you see a side play like that, it’s very difficult,” said Vaughan. “You’re arriving everyday and you’re looking at an opposing team and the opposing balcony, where they’re all smiling, all laughing, all got their shades on. Slapping each other on the back of their heads, saying go out there an have some fun, have fun, doesn’t matter if you get out doing so.”
“It’s a very hard mentality to play against, and you’re right, I think India probably feared that, probably spread too soon,” he continued. “Started to worry about the boundaries rather than thinking right, we’ve got to get them out. If I’m playing against England now, I’m purely thinking about getting them out. The runs are going to flow, that’s the kind of cricket they’re going to play.”
