Credit: X
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has slammed Indian captain Rohit Sharma for his performance against England in the first Test of the five-match series. The Three Lions pulled off a thrilling comeback win where Ben Stokes' men were nearly down and out at the start of the second innings. But an Ollie Pope 196 and Tom Hartley's 7-62 helped England register a thrilling 28-run win.
Also Read: Generational Fraud: Fans tear into Shubman Gill
As Pope pilled up runs, India's grip over the game started slipping as the bowlers failed to build pressure and leaked too many runs against England's innovative shots. Spotting these shortcomings, Michael Vaughan deemed Rohit Sharma's captaincy to be below par.
Vaughan describes Rohit's captaincy as 'very, very average'
Writing in his Telegraph column, the 2005 Ashes-winning captain opined, “Again and again, we’ve seen captains really struggle when confronting the Bazball tactics for the first time in a series. India have become the latest team to fall into that trap."
"In India’s first-Test defeat in Hyderabad, I thought Rohit Sharma’s captaincy was very, very average. I thought he was so reactive, I don’t think he manoeuvred his field or was proactive with his bowling changes. And he didn’t have any answer to Ollie Pope’s sweeps or reverse sweeps,” Vaughan further added.
It was just all too easy: Michael Vaughan on Sharma's defensive field settings
Further, Michael Vaughan delved into how Sharma's defensive field settings allowed England to sweep and find boundaries. Vaughan wrote, “The greatest spinner I’ve seen, Shane Warne, would go around the wicket and get the player to sweep the leg side and say good luck trying to do that. I didn’t see any of that from India. It was just all too easy. The way that England play, they will always score boundaries. And by spreading the field Sharma was basically saying that his bowlers’ best balls would still go for one.”
