Vaughan: Buttler must now come in for Ballance
With the Bangladesh section of England’s winter done and dusted, the focus is on the main course – the Test series against India starting next week.
England suffered a disappointing loss to Bangladesh in Dhaka to share that series.
The downfall came to spin, with England losing all their wickets in one session, collapsing from 100-0 to 164 all out.
It drew criticism from many people and BT Sport cricket expert Michael Vaughan was one of many to voice his opinion.
Former England captain Vaughan played one series in India, averaging 53 in 2001/02, and here tells The Cricket Paper what to expect. The batting is my biggest frustration and worry. One-day cricket has been a revelation since the World Cup – the way they’ve changed the style and really said anything is possible has been great.
I don’t think I’ve seen an England Test team bat so deep as the current one, but I don’t remember sides with Alan Mullally at No.8 being bowled out so cheaply so often. There’s a reason that’s happening – it’s a mindset issue.
Our style seems to be: we’re aggressive and that’s what we’ll do.Well actually, that’s how to play when you’ve been in for 30 or 40 minutes. And the only way to get in is to trust your survival mechanism.
I don’t think England have enough in terms of game-plan awareness to know how to survive against spin for half an hour. When the wicket is doing something, as soon as the ball swings, as soon as it’s over 85mph, or as soon as it spins, this set of England players get bowled out cheaply a lot. There’s too much talent to let that keep happening.
Gary Ballance looks as if he will lose his place to Jos Buttler or Haseeb Hameed. If you go with three seamers and two spinners, then it gives you that extra batsman option. So pack the team with batsmen in better form than those we saw in Bangladesh.
If they can take the games to days four and five, there’s a chance. England won’t win in three days, they have to take the game deep and try to surprise India in the last day and a half.
I remember Nasser Hussain’s team when we played the likes of Pakistan and India.We played it like Jose Mourinho’s style of parking the bus.
You can’t go and blow them away in three days. Get men behind the ball – when you’re in the field you have to restrict the scoring opportunities and try to force the error.Virat Kohli might be too good for that, but at least make it difficult for him.
When batting, we have to bat a load of time – take 140 overs out of the game in the first innings just by batting. If they do that, and park the bus, they might surprise India on days four or five. If they don’t and play expansively, then they’re going to get murdered.
I can’t see anything other than India winning every game. England might be able to bat first and get a big, big score in one of the games but I really worry after that performance in Dhaka.
I look at Ashwin, Jadeja and particularly Shami and Yadav with the old ball, they’re class, so it could be 5-0 if England don’t try to create a long game. For them to face Ashwin with five out of the top six being left-handers is like going to Barcelona and playing the 1-8-1 formation – you’re just not going to survive.
Australia in 2013, when Darren Lehmann took over, couldn’t deal with Swanny, with all the left-handers. After three Tests, Lehmann came to me and said:“Won’t be having left-handers in Australia.” And he just changed it.
I’d have gone with Hameed from the start of the Bangladesh Tests. Ben Duckett played well so you think he’ll start. Buttler will come in now for Ballance, so that’s another right-hander. I personally would try to get Sam Billings out there as well. It adds to the team and Ballance looks as if he is shot for confidence.
In Indian conditions anything can happen with bodies and illnesses on match day.Would you want to throw Ballance into a match next week if someone got ill on the morning of the match? Probably not.
Buttler has to play ahead of Hameed because of that little bit of experience. It will be hard for Jos because he hasn’t played much Test cricket but he has some experience. I do think Hameed will end up opening in the future, but you’d hope it goes so well in India that he doesn’t have to play.
You wouldn’t want a young kid to make his debut having not played for five weeks. That’s why it would have been perfect for him to play in Bangladesh.
When the batting line-up is so deep, though, why aren’t they getting 400 consistently? There have been too many times that they go from a partnership to losing three or four quick wickets.
There could be the excuse that the gung-ho attitude that has come with the one-day turnaround is eroding the Test team. But look at Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes, all of whom could be put in that gung-ho category, they’ve actually been three of our most consistent players over the past 12 months.
Alastair Cook has been inconsistent, as was Joe Root in Bangladesh. It seems that 30-3 is very trendy at the moment, no matter what the conditions or pitch are doing. It doesn’t matter what the names are at the top of the order, England still find a way of being 30 or 40-3 on a regular occasions.
That must stop.