Former England captain Michael Vaughan has expressed disbelief over the decision to bowl first on a dry, sun-drenched Headingley surface — a move that backfired as India ended the opening day of the first Test at a dominant 359 for 3.
Vaughan, in an interview on BBC's Test Match Special, described the call as surprising considering the conditions and the strengths of England at this time. "I am an old school traditionalist. Here at Leeds, when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat," he said bluntly.
In Vaughan's opinion, England's batting side is now more reliable than their bowling, which is still evolving. "You look at the England team and their strength is their batting. And there is a bit of inexperience in the bowling at this point in time. Ben [Stokes] obviously had a gut instinct, and sometimes it has worked," he said.
In sunny and humid weather, with a pitch providing little support to bowlers, England's choice to send India in was enigmatic — particularly when Indian batsmen Shubman Gill (127*) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (101) made the most of it to take their team in control.
Since Ben Stokes became the captain in 2022 together with head coach Brendon McCullum, England has quite often chosen to bowl first — a trend inspired by attacking, unorthodox approaches. The choice at Headingley could also have been driven by more recent trends at the ground, where the team bowling first had won the previous six Tests.
However, Vaughan is not convinced by past trends informing tactical decisions. "You always have to choose your decisions on that instant, and not things that you did here years back or otherwise. It can't influence what the decision is nowadays," he contended.
He did admit that on a good batting pitch, holding back runs would never be simple. Nevertheless, he hoped Stokes to remain positive. "Ben Stokes is still upbeat and he will be back tomorrow telling us 'let's get seven wickets'."
But Vaughan withheld last judgment on the nature of the pitch he had just played on. "We won't know that until we get to see Jasprit Bumrah bowl on it. He can bowl you out with anything. Until I see that, I will withhold my judgement on how flat this pitch is," he said.
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