Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has slammed the English side after their embarrassing nine-wicket Ashes 2021 defeat at the Gabba. Though, skipper Joe Root and Dawid Malan had shown immense fightback on Day 3 but the Australian side made a stunning comeback to end this game with a win.
The 159-run partnership went in vain as Root and Malan failed to carry on their promising overnight partnership, however, England crumbled from 223-2 to 297-10 in 29 overs and could only set a 20-run target for the Australian side. The target of 20 runs was a cakewalk for the Aussies. lex Carey and Marcus Harris opened the batting, but Robinson managed to get rid of Alex to give the visitors some joy. However, Harris scored some winning runs to help his team win the 1st match.
Now that is a satisfying finish!
A nine-wicket win caps off a great all-round performance from our boys in Brisbane.
We’re back in action in Adelaide from the 16th of December! #Ashes pic.twitter.com/IELesdieys
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) December 11, 2021
In the end, the Australian side secured a nine-wicket win at The Gabba, Brisbane, taking a 1-0 lead in the ongoing series.
Meanwhile, speaking to foxsports.com.au, Vaughan slammed the England cricket team for their “horrendous sessions” against better teams. He expressed how he’s now habitual of seeing the fundamental issues of the England side and their habit of giving hope before performing badly. He said:
“I thought that might happen. It happens a lot to this England side where you get a load of hope and, before you know it, you’re done and dusted quite quickly. Everything that’s happened this week just does not surprise me.”
He added:
“You kind of have hope that things can be different and they’ll get it right because they’ve got so much talent in the team, but fundamentally against the best teams, this is what England do. If you look at it over the past few years, when they’ve played the better teams – Australia, India, New Zealand; it happened in the summer that we’ve just had, it happened against Australia in 2019 – this England side, they have horrendous sessions.”
Courtesy of the 159-run partnership of Root and Malan, few gave England any chance of winning the Gabba Test.
However, as per Michael Vaughan, one of the main reasons behind Australia’s win was their treatment of Jack Leach, who bowled 13 overs because he conceded 102 runs in them at an economic rate of 7.8. Vaughan blamed Joe Root’s side for Leach’s lack of confidence and for not trusting his skills. He said:
“It looks like the Aussies knew that Jack Leach had not played any cricket and is a vulnerable player in the side. Because he’s not been picked and, in your own mind as an individual when you’ve been in and out of the side because the team hasn’t trusted you to play since you’ve had such a good winter in Sri Lanka and India, he’s clearly in that vulnerable position and Australia targeted him brilliantly.”
Further, Michael Vaughan said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Joe Root do away with spin completely in the second Test match and go for an all-seam attack. He said:
“I’m always a believer that you need variation. If you’ve got five bowlers in your attack, surely four seamers can do the job. If you’re asking for a fifth then your four seamers haven’t bowled well enough. It wouldn’t surprise me if England went without the spinner and pack the batting, picked another batter and played four seamers.”
Meanwhile, the second Test match of the ongoing Ashes series will kickstart at 9:30 IST on Thursday.
Also Read: Twitter Reacts After Australia Makes A Solid Comeback To Secure A Win In 1st Ashes Match
