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Michael Vaughan
(Getty)

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has criticized the England team for their approach to Test cricket during the shocking loss to Sri Lanka in the third Test at The Oval.

Under Ollie Pope's stand-in captaincy, England suffered an embarrassing loss by eight wickets to the subcontinent team, and Vaughan believes that the tactics adopted by the home team displayed disrespect to Test cricket.

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He expressed concerns about England’s over-aggressive approach with both the bat and field placements, especially after taking a lead in the series. Earlier, Vaughan had claimed that he did not like Pope as a captain because he was an "insecure human being".

MORE: How did Ollie Pope respond to Michael Vaughan's comments?

Why did Michael Vaughan claim that England disrespected Test cricket?

Vaughan strongly condemned England’s strategy during the match. He highlighted that their complacency after good performances in the frist two Tests, hurt them.

The former England skipper wrote in his column for The Telegraph, stating:

"I felt that they disrespected Test cricket and disrespected Sri Lanka by being over-aggressive with both the bat and in their field placings"

He also mentioned that England cannot afford costly errors in future matches, especially against stronger teams like India and Australia.

"There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia," he noted.

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What were England’s tactical blunders?

Vaughan was particularly critical of the fielding choices made during the match. He argued that while the bowlers did their job, the aggressive field placements made it harder for them.

"They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this wasn’t the match or pitch for that," he said.

He felt that the pitch required more traditional fields with a few slips, but England went overboard with aggressive positions.

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England, after a strong start in the first two Tests, posted 325 runs in the first innings and took a lead of 62 runs by dismissing Sri Lanka for 263. In the second innings, they crumbled and scored just 156. This collapse allowed Sri Lanka to chase the target comfortably.

Michael Vaughan’s criticism acts as a warning for England, who will need to learn from this defeat as they prepare for upcoming matches, particularly in the context of the important of winning matches that are part of the World Test Championship (WTC).

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Author(s)
Divy Dubey Photo

Divy Dubey is a content producer for The Sporting News' India edition.