Michael Vaughan wants Broad and Anderson to "step up and challenge Virat Kohli's front foot"

Former England captain Michael Vaughan chalked out a plan that he thinks will help the team win the first Test against India in Birmingham starting August 1. The two teams look better matched on paper – the weather and conditions in England also favour the hosts to a certain extent. The ball isn’t expected to swing as much as it did last time and the spinners might come into play big time.

Vaughan wants the English team to trust their resources and not go in with too many bowlers. There is a chance that they field a team with six bowling options, he thinks that is unnecessary and the captain should trust his main bowlers to do the job. The 43-year-old wants them to be aggressive and attack India’s strength which is their captain Virat Kohli. He wants Stuart Broad and James Anderson to “step up and challenge Virat Kohli’s front foot”.

“Joe Root needs to hammer home to his men that they have a point to prove and try to replicate that angry England team that arrived at Headingley and hammered Pakistan in their last Test. Go back and say to the players: ‘What were you thinking that first day at Headingley?,” Vaughan wrote in the ‘Daily Telegraph’.

“Sometimes it is not done in team chats. Sometimes you are better off speaking to individuals. Go to each individual and ask: ‘Why did you arrive in Leeds with more intensity’?”

Don’t wait for criticism to perform

When Pakistan toured England in May-June this year they won the first Test at Lord’s by 9 wickets, the home team was heavily criticised by the media and all fragments, they then pulled their socks and thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs in the 2nd Test at Headingley. Vaughan wants the team to now put up a good performance firstup and not after facing the wrath.

“This England team has to find that attitude without first having to be stirred into a response through criticism after a hammering. Maybe the Adil Rashid furore will help,” said Vaughan.

“England will not win every game, they are not good enough, but their mindset and mentality can be the same every week.”

Tactic against Kohli

He asked the bowlers to draw Virat towards the ball that’s when he’s most vulnerable and can edge the ball.

“You need his front left-foot going over to the off side, he then starts doubting where his off-stump is and playing squarer on the off side which is when the outside edge comes into play.

“England did it in the one-day series at times. He was vulnerable a yard outside off-stump and the likes of Anderson and Broad have to hang it out there and say ‘Come to us’. If there is any movement in the air they will be a real threat,” he wrote.

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