Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has criticised England’s lack of preparation for the Test match series against India. While India played a practice game ahead of the start of the Test series, Englan did not. The side lost a Test series to New Zealand 1-0 as a preparation to the India series. This series also kicks off the second edition of the World Test Championship.
Speaking on BBC Test Match Special, Michael Vaughan termed England’s schedule against India as “silly”. He also suggested that some players should not have been allowed to play in The Hundred and instead focused on red-ball cricket.
“It is silly that we don’t give our players one or two games facing the red-ball to prepare for a Test series. It is about management, and you might have to say to players ‘you can’t play in The Hundred'” Vaughan said.
Michael Vaughan Wants More Practice Games Ahead Of Test Series
The former England skipper also said that England’s regular Test players should have played ample red-ball cricket in their domestic county cricket as a preparation for the series against India.
“In the last four or five weeks there should have been four or five rounds of County Championship cricket so players that are just Test players like Dom Sibley and Haseeb Hameed would have been playing cricket. It is also important to have that cricket while Test is going on so people can makes centuries, and take five-wicket hauls, and put pressure on the people that are playing in the Test team and not delivering” Vaughan highlighted.
The first Test was played between August 4-8 while the second between July 12-16. There is a 9-day gap before the third Test at Headingley, Leeds from July 25. This gives enough time for the likes of Sibley, Hameed and others to get some game time in county cricket before playing the third Test.
The first Test at Trent Bridge ended in a draw with the second Test at Lord’s well poised at the moment with India scoring 364 in their first innings.
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