From the toss decision to how England bowled, and then batted, the home side’s ways continue to confound pundits. Michael Vaughan winced and declared all three results, in cricketing style, were possible: “So far in this Bazball era England either blow teams away, chase brilliant or they get hammered,” he said at close on Day 2 on Test Match Special. “They don’t play the boring draw because they’ve never had to.”
However this new triad of possibilities brings with it some amount of uncertainty extending to cluelessness of how the psychedelic pattern might unfold. “I’ll be intrigued to see what happens if England lose a few quick ones tomorrow and if they think we have to dig deep,” Vaughan said.
Thoughts on whether England had been smart to bowl first also churned in Vaughan’s mind. “Im not too sure what England will be thinking. I hope Ben Stokes is thinking, ‘we should’ve batted first’,” he said on TMS, adding that English bowling (largely due to Gill’s glorious runs) worried him. “The way that England bowled today was a slight concern. There were a few things I saw in the field which made me think this looks a bit ominous going forward,” he said.
He bought into the theory that their resolves were ground down by being made to wait their turn to bat. “Sometimes you bat first to grind the opposition into the dirt and that’s what England looked like. They played three tired shots,” he said.
He was also boggled with how India ran up that massive total, and settled for them being ‘lucky’ – for losing the toss and not deciding wrong. “It couldn’t have gone any better for India. They got lucky because Shubman Gill wanted to bowl first and I don’t know why you would even consider that,” he mused.
Is there any way back for England in this Test match?🤔#ENGvIND #BBCCricket pic.twitter.com/Vi3zgjlqpe
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) July 3, 2025
However by the end of the day he had been gung ho with Harry Brook and Joe Root managing to survive, despite the many ways Brook contrived to keep English supporters on the edge. “This England pair have taken the sting out of the game. India were buzzing about before,” Vaughan said, picking at particles of joy after the three quick wickets.
In keeping with his unique thinking slant, he remained perplexed by India not attacking late, saying India were spooked by thevlate rally in Headingley. “Joe Root has played nice and controlled but I’m perplexed by the tactics of India so far. I think India are spooked by England’s big chase here a few years ago and what happened at Headingley.”
He was hopeful in sum total. “The pitch is still a beauty. The three dismissals were iffy. It’s still good and, if England are ready to put in the hard yards, it should be a decent score for someone.”
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The reason for his furrowed forehead was India’s spread out field in the last session, with even Cheteshwar Pujara saying early on that Crawley needed a short cover closer in. Vaughan though said, “If you just walked into the ground now and saw this field you’d think England must be dominating. There’s three India players on the boundary. I don’t get why teams don’t bring the field up against England in this situation.”
There’s Bazball and then there’s the Bazz-boggled.
