Michael Vaughan gives captaincy tips to Ben Stokes:- Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said he had been left “staggered” when the current England skipper, Ben Stokes, elected to bowl first after winning the toss in the 1st India vs England Test at Headingley.
The India vs England Test series 2025 got underway on Friday in Leeds with the visitors dominating the day through centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill and a third-session onslaught from Rishabh Pant.
Stokes inserted India in, citing some “early conditions,” and mostly it was a tacit implication at the history at Headingley in recent years. The six Tests at this venue were won by the team that bowled first.
However, the underlying factor in those Tests was that there was plenty of help for the pacers on the first couple of days here in those Tests due to cloudy and rainy weather and grass and juice in the pitch. All of this was mostly absent on Friday, not least because, for a rare occasion, Headingley is hosting the first Test of a long series in June; generally, it hosts Test matches later in the season.
India had three big partnerships on day 1 between Jaiswal-Rahul, Jaiswal-Gill, and Gill-Pant, leading the visitors to 359/3; with Gill and Pant unbeaten, this total could stretch beyond 500.
Pick your decisions on that moment: Michael Vaughan gives captaincy tips to Ben Stokes
Vaughan, who played 51 first-class matches at Headingley, tore into Ben Stokes for his decision to bowl first on a bright and sunny day, with the pitch being dry. The 2005 Ashes-winning skipper asserted the importance of conditions on the day of the match and not how things had panned out in previous Tests at the venue.
“I am an old-school traditionalist here at Leeds that when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat,” Vaughan was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“I was staggered when he said he was going to bowl. Traditions are out the window. You have to pick your decisions on that moment, and not things that you did here years ago,” he added.
Former New Zealand pacer Tim Southee is currently working as England’s bowling consultant. He reasoned that there was little help early in the morning but admitted the surface flattened out soon after. On the positive side, Southee reckoned England batsmen, too, will enjoy batting on this pitch.
“I think there was a little bit of assistance there [in the first hour], but for the rest of the day it was a pretty good surface, which is encouraging for our guys when we get an opportunity to bat,” Southee said.
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