Stuart Broad takes a cheeky dig at Michael Vaughan for questioning England’s strategy in the opening Test against India
England won the opening Test by 227 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.
When England were batting in their second innings, there were calls of declaration in the Chepauk Test. However, the Brits kept batting until they were bowled out. Shane Warne, the former Australian spinner, stated that Joe Root, the visitors’ captain should have declared much earlier and let their bowlers have a crack at the Indian batsmen.
Thereafter, Michael Vaughan, the former England skipper, also opined on Root’s tactics on the fourth day at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The veteran felt that by not declaring early, England and Root were giving India enough chance to escape with a draw.
“So you think @root66 is doing the right thing and not declaring? Need more runs? Surely should be bowling now…,” Warne’s tweet read.
“I think he is being too cautious and is giving India a good chance of getting out of this Test with a draw,” Vaughan’s reply read.
In the meantime, England cricket dropped a post on Instagram, mentioning the ones, ‘moaning about their declaration’. Thereafter, Stuart Broad, the veteran England speedster trolled Vaughan in the comments section. Broad wrote, “Think that’s aimed at you @michaelvaughan?!”
Joe Root opens up on England’s game-plan
After the match, Root revealed the reasons behind the Three Lions delaying their declaration. The skipper stated that since the outfield was fast, the visitors wanted runs on the board, making it tough for the hosts to go after the target.
“We could have declared earlier, for sure, we could have. I wanted to make sure that there were only two results possible in this game. I wanted to make sure that we turned up today with the ball still being hard. We wanted to give our bowlers an extra bit of time to be raring to go,” Root told the reporters.
“We wanted to get to 400 and then we wanted to press the accelerator. Actually, it was going to be really important that we had runs on the board as it was a fast outfield,” he added.
In the fourth innings, England bowled India out for 192 when the hosts were chasing 420 runs. The second Test gets underway on February 13 in Chennai itself.
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