IND vs ENG: 'The truth of baseball came out in front of everyone', former England captain's sharp attack on Stokes and his strategy

Former England batsman Michael Vaughan has criticized the 'baseball' tactics of the Ben Stokes-led side after their poor performance in the recently concluded third Test against India in Rajkot. India registered its biggest Test win by defeating England by 434 runs on Sunday. Chasing the impossible target of 557 runs, the England team was all out for 122 runs in the second innings. Regarding England's poor batting, Vaughan said that England's 'baseball' has been exposed in Indian conditions. His real picture has been revealed to everyone.

'Baseball exposed'

"I'm afraid baseball has been exposed this week," Vaughn said in an interview. When it works it's great. The first Test was a pitch where the ball did all kinds of things. So we got baseball on that pitch, but in the last two Tests where the pitches were perfect to play with positive intent, our batting collapsed. There was a need to play with common sense here.

'Nothing positive came from this match'

Before India finished the match on the fourth day, Vaughan had predicted that England might have to face humiliation for the first time in the 'baseball' era. He had said, 'To be honest, it could be a mess for England here. They have lost games in the baseball era, but they have never been defeated this badly. This may be the first time. Vaughan had also posted a post on social media to shed further light on this matter. He wrote, 'Whenever this England team has lost in the last two years, you have always been able to take some positives from those matches. They have not been defeated this badly. It looks like a wake-up call which is sending a message that you cannot play with just one strategy against good teams.

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Stokes defends baseball

Vaughan also said that there should be common sense in the English camp that 'baseball' cannot work everywhere. At the same time, England captain Stokes has defended baseball after his team's defeat. He said, 'Ben Duckett played an incredible innings. That was the tone we wanted to set with the bat. In the first innings, we were looking for opportunities to score runs and were thinking of getting close to India's total. The way the wicket was playing, we wanted to go closer, but sometimes that doesn't happen. Opinions matter to us in the dressing room. We are behind 1-2 in the series. But there are still two matches left. We leave this match behind. We know that to win the series we have to win the next two matches.

What happened in the match?

India defeated England by 434 runs in the third test. In this match played in Rajkot, England had got the target of 557 runs. In reply, the England team was reduced to 122 runs. Except for Mark Wood, no batsman from England could even touch the figure of 20. Wood scored 33 runs in 15 balls. At the same time, Ravindra Jadeja took five wickets for India. Apart from this, Kuldeep got two wickets. Bumrah and Ashwin got one wicket each. India has taken a 2-1 lead in the five-match Test series. England won the first Test in Hyderabad, while India won the second Test in Visakhapatnam.

India won the toss in Rajkot and batted first and scored 445 runs. At the same time, England's first innings ended at 319 runs. Based on the first innings, India had a lead of 126 runs in the second innings. India declared its second innings after scoring 430 runs for four wickets. The total lead was 556 runs. Chasing the target of 557 runs, the English innings was reduced to 122 runs. The fourth match of the series will be played in Ranchi on 23 February.

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