Wales Cricket Board: Former captain Michael Vaughan issued a dire warning to England ahead of their tour of India, saying that he is unsure their aggressive approach, often dubbed as ‘Bazball’, may come down crumbling against a world-class Indian spin attack that includes Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
England is set to tour India, naming their squad on Monday night which notably includes an impressive count of four specialist spinners, gearing up for the challenging conditions on the turning subcontinent.
Pointing to Australian spinner Nathan Lyon’s success on English turf during the Ashes, where he claimed 9 wickets in conditions typically considered unfavorable for spinners, Vaughan said England may get blown away when they face formidable Indian spin attack which includes Ashwin, Jadeja, and Axar Patel.
“Ultimately the hardest place to play in the world is India and if you actually go back to the Ashes when Nathan Lyon was fit and bowling nicely, Australia were 2-0 up in the series,” Vaughan told to Fox sports.
“That was just one innings and a few overs in the first innings at Lords… Nathan came out with a lovely line the other week where he said he’s 2-nil up against Bazball. Now that’s just one spinner, if you look at that five-for he got at Edgbaston and the field was spread and England got out to him by playing ridiculous shots at times.
“If you add in Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel on spinning wickets in India, they may get blown away, they may get absolutely destroyed. They will go out and play exactly the same way, we’ve already spoken about the impact they are going to try and achieve in India with the way they play,” he said.
“It will be great watching, but you will have to fancy three quality spinners might do a job on England when one quality spinner in Nathan Lyon did the job in English conditions. Tt’s going to be very tough for them to win in India,” Vaughan added.
England will play 5 Tests from January 25 to March 11 and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced a 16-member squad for the series on Monday.