"They're running out of time" - Michael Vaughan on England's problems after T20I series loss vs India
Former England captain Michael Vaughan is a bit worried about the hosts' issues after yet another comprehensive series loss against India. England were bowled out for just 121 in the second T20I on Saturday as their batting faltered once again, leading to a 49-run loss.
Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar seemed to have the measure of the England openers as he dismissed Jason Roy and captain Jos Buttler for the second time in as many games. Vaughan believes losing the top order cheaply has been the main reason behind the hosts failing to compete in the series so far.
Two batting collapses for England is a bit worrying with what's mostly a full strength batting line up. If only we had someone in the wings, say the youngest English player to 8,000 T20 runs, this year's Blast top scorer with 2 100s and 3 50s and the 2nd highest ever Blast scorer
Speaking to Cricbuzz after the game, Vaughan explained the issues that England need to sort out with their batting as they have just seven more T20Is to play before the T20 World Cup. He said:
"You can't rely on the engine room when you get no starts. England, if you see, lost that semifinal in the T20 World Cup against New Zealand. They haven't been doing well in this format for a while. Dawid Malan at No. 3 is still an issue for me as he is just batting and playing instead of being the aggressor. I don't think they're quite getting the combinations right. They're running out of time. It's the batting that just hasn't clicked for quite some time."
England Batting
Expectations. Reality https://t.co/axIVi7ms3N
"Poor decision from Jos Buttler to bowl first" - Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan was also baffled to see captain Jos Buttler win the toss and put India into bat on what was a used pitch at Edgbaston. The 47-year-old feels the hosts should have read the conditions better and understood that the pitch would only get slower.
The likes of Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal ensured with their variations that England don't get any momentum in their chase. On this, Vaughan stated:
"Poor decision from Jos Buttler to bowl first. The pitch got slower and slower and batting became harder and harder as the game went on. India realized that and used a lot of slower balls and variations."
The hosts will hope to avoid a series whitewash on Sunday. More importantly, they will need to look at the bigger picture as, according to Michael Vaughan, they need to get their combination right before the T20 World Cup.