'Can’t believe they haven’t learnt from what happened at Lord’s' - Michael Vaughan lashes out at England for repeating mistakes

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has criticized the England cricket team for repeating the mistakes from the Lord’s Test last year during the rescheduled Test match against visitors India. The former right-handed batter pointed out England using the short-ball ploy against the Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah.

Bumrah went bonkers against Stuart Broad as he smoked him for 29 runs in an over where the veteran pacer ended up conceding 35 runs, the most expensive over bowled in the Test format. After doing excellently with the bat, Bumrah also scalped crucial wickets during Day 2.

England got it completely wrong in the morning: Michael Vaughan

“England got it completely wrong in the morning. I am a massive fan of Ben Stokes and Baz (Brendon) McCullum. I like inventive, creative, and out-of-the-box thinking. But that comes when the pitch is flat and the conditions aren’t quite in your favor,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz.

“At Edgbaston, the clouds were around. You just had to hit the top of off stump. You’ve got Broad and (James) Anderson, two of the greats of the game, bowling to Jasprit Bumrah, who can bat just a little bit. They decide to go short with all the fields spread out. It was very similar to what happened at Lord’s last year. I can’t believe they haven’t learned from what happened at Lord’s,” Vaughan added.

The former England skipper was also surprised with England’s tactics during the ending phase of Day 2. To note, England sent out night-watchman Jake Leach, but that plan failed as he was scalped by Mohammed Shami for a duck.

“In the Bazball era, sending a night-watchman in with 25 minutes left, I suddenly thought – where’s that come from? I was expecting Ben Stokes to go out there and play some shots. They have committed to aggressive cricket. They can’t suddenly go – wait, we have got to be safe. They played safe in the morning as well,” said Vaughan.