Captain’s corner: Michael Vaughan vs Andrew Strauss

Who was the better England captain?

Being the pioneers of the game, England have produced scores of outstanding cricketers ever since the inception of the sport. The yesteryear greats include WG Grace, Walley Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Sir Ian Botham and Graham Gooch among others, whilst the modern list consists of Kevin Pietersen, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook and Joe Root.

As Root readies himself to wear the captain’s hat anew against South Africa at Lord’s, the only thing that separates Anderson from the others is the fact that they have all led their nation at one point in their careers. All extremely able leaders, the bunch of England captains includes two other bright former captains in Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss.

Vaughan led his country from 2003-2008 before resigning from the post and eventually ending his nine-year journey in international cricket, which had begun on the tour of South Africa in 1999.

Only Kevin Pietersen’s brief stint as captain separated the tenures of Vaughan and his former teammate Strauss. The left-handed opener started as captain in 2009, and retired in 2012 after serving England for eight years. Both ended their careers after losing a Test series to South Africa at home; both were typically suited for Test match cricket and led England to many glorious and memorable moments as captains and batsmen.

On that note, here is a statistical comparison between both the ex-leaders of England.

Overall record

When the overall records of both Vaughan and Strauss as captains are considered, the former just pips the latter in both Tests, as well as ODIs. Vaughan brought home the Ashes in 2005 – he led an England team which included Strauss – from a dominant Australian side while Strauss too enjoyed consecutive Ashes wins in 2009 – at home – and 2010/11 – Down Under.

 

England won the 2005 Ashes 2-1 under Michael Vaughan 

Captaincy in Tests

	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	51	26	11	14	50.98 %
Andrew Strauss	50	23	11	16	46.00 %

 

Captaincy in ODIs

	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	60	32	22	2	4	53.33 %
Andrew Strauss	62	27	33	1	1	43.55 %

 

Home record

At home, the longer format witnessed a win percentage of 58 from both Vaughan and Strauss, though the latter was captain in 31 matches as compared to Vaughan’s 29. In ODIs, however, Vaughan is way ahead of Strauss, with the left-hander suffering more losses than victories.

During the tour of South Africa in 2004/05, England beat the hosts 2-1

Captaincy in Tests

	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	29	17	6	6	58.62 %
Andrew Strauss	31	18	4	9	58.06 %

 

Captaincy in ODIs

	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	29	15	11	1	2	51.72 %
Andrew Strauss	32	13	18	0	1	40.63 %

 

Away Record

When both Tests and ODIs away from home are compared Vaughan emerges as the winner yet again. Whilst not possessing an envious record, Vaughan still beats Strauss comfortably in both formats, especially Test cricket.

Michael Vaughan boasts a better record as captain than Andrew Strauss in away Tests as well as ODIs

Captaincy in Tests

	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	22	9	5	8	40.91 %
Andrew Strauss	19	5	7	7	26.32 %

 

Captaincy in ODIs

	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	31	17	11	1	2	54.84 %
Andrew Strauss	30	14	15	1	0	46.67 %

 

ICC Tournaments

In ICC tournaments, Vaughan captained England in the Champions Trophy 2004 at home and the all-important World Cup 2007 in West Indies. While England made it to the final in the Champions Trophy, they had to exit after the Super Eight stage in the World Cup.

Strauss also had the fortune of leading his country in a Champions Trophy and a World Cup, in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Andrew Strauss led England to the quarter-final of the 2011 World Cup

 

	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win Percentage
Michael Vaughan	13	8	5	0	0	61.54 %
Andrew Strauss	10	5	4	1	0	50.00 %

 

Personal performance as captain

Both Vaughan and Strauss achieved nine Test hundreds each as captain, to go with 13 and 14 half-centuries, respectively. But Strauss averaged a good 42 and beat Vaughan comfortably in ODI cricket. Never quite a one-day player, Vaughan’s highest ODI score remained 90* to Strauss’ 158.

Andrew Strauss slammed 158 against India in the 2011 World Cup, a match which ended in a tie

Performance in Tests

	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	Hundreds	Fifties	Highest Score
Michael Vaughan	51	94	3,170	36.02	9	13	166
Andrew Strauss	50	87	3,343	42.86	9	14	161

 

Performance in ODIs

	Matches	Innings	Runs	Average	Hundreds	Fifties	Highest Score
Michael Vaughan	60	58	1,418	28.94	0	11	90*
Andrew Strauss	62	62	2,367	39.45	4	16	158