Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said affirmatively that India don’t stand a chance in the third Test at the Headingley here but added that players can take some positives ‘individually’ into the fourth Test, which gets underway at the Kennington Oval in London on September 2.
“They’ll lose this week, I’m pretty sure. But can you find a bit of form from one or two of those players – Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara – Sharma can’t afford to get out to the pull shot once again. Virat Kohli himself needs to find form and rhythm,” Vaughan was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“As much as I think India are going to lose the Test quite convincingly, they can take quite a bit from the second innings, individually to the next game,” Vaughan felt.
Fifties from England’s top three and the 23rd Test century from skipper Joe Root (121) at No. 4 took England to 423/8 at stumps, 345 runs ahead of the visitors’ first-innings total of 78 all out.
Another excellent day
What does Day 3 hold in store?
#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/5rcRSzXmzx— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 27, 2021
“They have to forget the scoreboard. They’ve gotten one innings and they should focus on getting a big score. (They have to) tell themselves ‘we’ve won the toss and were going to bat on this pitch today, can we get a big score’. You can’t do that over the course of the first hour or first session. You, as a batting unit, individually, have to work out your own mindset, your own game to understand how you are going to get that big individual score,” Vaughan said.
“When you get that, you can reach 400-500. But you can’t get the big number without going through the process of what you need. They will lose this week, I’m pretty sure,” added Vaughan.
(with IANS inputs)
