Picture Credit: X
Michael Vaughan, the 2005 Ashes winning captain has slammed the Ollie Pope-led England side after the team shockingly lost the third Test against Sri Lanka. Owing to this loss, the Three Lions not only failed to clean sweep Sri Lanka in the three-match series but also failed to remain unbeaten in Tests in the 2024 home season. Apart from this, England have also missed out on earning 12 vital points for the ongoing World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle and slipped to sixth position in the points table. Talking about the third Test, the Dhananjaya De Silva-led side won the toss and elected to field first.
With the ball, the Asian side bowled England out for 325 runs with Pope scoring 153 runs with the bat. In reply, after being reduced to 93/5, the Lankans managed to get 263 runs, trailing by 62 after the end of the first innings. In the second innings, Sri Lanka bowled England out for 156 runs with Lahiru Kumara taking four wickets while Vishwa Fernando picking three. Chasing the target of 219 runs, Pathum Nissanka’s unbeaten 127 helped Sri Lanka reach the target with eight wickets in hand. With this performance, Sri Lanka managed to break the cycle of back-to-back losses against England since 2016. It is to be noted that the last time Sri Lanka won a Test against England was way back in 2014.
They disrespected Test cricket: Michael Vaughan
Meanwhile, after England’s loss against Sri Lanka early this week, Vaughan has criticized the home team’s tactics during the match. “They (England) have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period. I felt that they disrespected Test cricket and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being over-aggressive with both the bat and in their field placings. England have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period—I think of the start of the Ashes or earlier this year in Rajkot—and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for the tougher Tests that lie in wait in 2025. There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia,” Vaughan said.
The 2005 Ashes winning captain added that the Three Lions disrespected the game by being cocky. “For me, the intensity and concentration in the big moments were missing this week. It was all a bit flimsy, cocky even. They took the mickey out of the game. The answer in Test cricket’s hottest moments cannot always be attack, attack, attack,” Vaughan further addressed.
Over-aggressive field didn’t work for England: Michael Vaughan
The 49-year-old further added that even though England’s bowling was fine, the over-attacking field didn’t work for the team as they didn’t had enough runs on the board. “I felt England’s bowling was fine this week, but I thought the over-aggressive fields they went for did the bowlers a disservice and put them on the back foot immediately. They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this wasn’t the match or pitch for that,” Vaughan said. “This was a top-of-off pitch, two or three slips and a gully, with extra cover in. They had six slips, short leg and leg slip. It was almost as if they had 650 on the board, but they had half of that,” he continued.
England’s next assignment in the longest format of the game will be against Pakistan for a three-match Test series next month. The last time England played a Test series in Pakistan, they managed to win it by 3-0 margin. This series was played in December 2022 and for the first time in their history, Pakistan team was clean sweeped at home in the red-ball format.
