"There's just no quality, 'fragile batting' will find it tough to beat India"- Vaughan, Warne and Waugh blast England
England's batting lineup and the ECB's rest-and-rotation policy were subject to some sharp skewering by former cricketers Michael Vaughan, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh recently.
Speaking on the Road to the Ashes podcast, Vaughan blasted Joe Root's team for their selection choices, a 'fragile' batting, and their stark inability to put up competitive totals on the board. Vaughan argued that despite the return of some key players, England will find it very tough to beat both India at home and Australia in the away Ashes later this year.
"You, know this series against New Zealand, it's been dry for the week leading into that first Test at Lords, played no spinner, exactly the same at Edgbaston, didn't play a spinner, and the batting lineup is fragile, it's simple as that. Buttler, Stokes and Woakes have come back, yes, they'll improve the team but unless that batting lineup changes and can learn and understand how to get big scores against good bowling, and not against second-string Test match standard bowling, I just can't see how they can compete. It's going to be tough for them to beat India on these shores. But then to go to Australia if they won't get 450-500 I just can't see [them being competitive]," said Vaughan.
Mark Waugh, who represented Australia in 128 Tests, added that the current England lineup boasts 'no quality' at all. He slammed openers Dom Sibley and Rory Burns for their approach, even saying that the former isn't worthy of playing Test cricket.
"You know, I am looking at the stats of this England batting lineup, they are all averaging about 30... there's just no quality there. I don't know why there's no depth in batting... Someone like Dom Sibley, he can't score, you can't come to Australia with Burns and Sibley opening the batting because they can't score. He's not got any shots, Dom Sibley, he's not a Test player and quite frankly I don't know how he got to that level. There's got to be a shortage of players there," said Waugh.
England lost to world champions New Zealand 1-0 at home. The batting, bereft of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, neither showed the ability to play for long durations nor put any pressure on the opposition. Bowling provided occasional good spells but failed to put up a collective dominating performance even against a second-string Kiwi lineup.
"All England openers can do is survive" - Shane Warne
Legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne also took the England openers to task. He observed that Sibley and Burns aren't stroke-makers and can only blunt the new ball, which puts immense pressure on their middle-order.
"I just don't know how he can play Test cricket... as a bowler, you worry about batsmen that can hurt you. No one has thought of this. The England middle-order is suffering because all the bowlers that play against England have got their confidence and tails up because they are not getting hurt by Burns and Sibley. They can't hurt and punish them at any level. All they can do is survive and see off the shine and that's not good," said Warne.
England will now play against Virat Kohli's men in a 5-Test series starting on August 4 before heading on to Australia to take a hit at the urn in December-January.