Formally the experienced captain of team England in cricket Michael Vaughan was too savage to criticize the Ollie Pope-led line after they fell apart on their own against Sri Lanka in the third test match held last Monday. An in-form Sri Lanka side turned out to be completely blistering for England, who experienced the hosts’ first Test loss in over ten years. According to Vaughan, it is impermissible for England to have acted as they did because this amounted to looking down upon both Tests cricket and its companion, Sri Lanka. He went on to say that their style of play through Bazball was absent which created an opening for Sri Lanka.
“I felt that they disrespected Test cricket and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being over-aggressive with both bat and in their field placings,” said Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph
“England have made a bit of 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,” he added.
He further noted that such cricket would not be winning matches against any tough opponents like India or Australia. In his words, “there is no way they will be able to survive playing like this against any team as India or Australia.”
Sri Lankans had a target of 219 runs and they reached it losing just two wickets by the fourth day lunch with Nissanka lingering at 127 not out while Angelo Mathews remained on 32 not out in an unbroken partnership of 111 runs.
Thus Sri Lanka’s triumph in this test was its fourth Test win in England and the first after triumphing by 100 runs over Headingley back there in ‘2014’.
This left England with the series win as they emerged victorious from Old Trafford (a victory by five wickets) and Lords (a victory by 190 runs) thus taking it 2-1.
Nonetheless despite this loss; England were denied their first clean sweep at home since 2004 when 7 games were won under Michael Vaughan’s reign after beating West Indies 3-nil earlier that year.
