Michael Vaughan makes damning Jonny Bairstow prediction as England flop in India

Cricket: Root says England need to find way on difficult wickets

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Michael Vaughan believes that the heavy Test series defeat to India will spell the end for Jonny Bairstow’s England red-ball career. Ex-England captain Vaughan was left unimpressed that, by his reckoning, the side had seemingly prioritised the forthcoming ODIs and T20Is over the Test series, which they lost 3-1.

The defeat was confirmed in Ahmedabad, after another second innings batting collapse which saw England 30-4 and then 65-6.

There were glimmers of optimism from Dan Lawrence and another contribution from skipper Joe Root, but Bairstow was caught off the first ball he faced.

Vaughan doesn’t foresee the Yorkshireman finding a place in the side for the Ashes later this year.

“Jonny Bairstow is gone from this Test team,” Vaughan told BBC’s Cricket Social. “I can’t see him batting at three in England this summer or in Australia this winter. I don’t think there are really many positives to take from this tour.

“The only ones are that Joe Root, James Anderson and Ben Stokes remain up there among the best players in the world. Jack Leach has enhanced his reputation a bit as well.”

Vaughan slammed the approach taken, which he feels is centred more towards the limited overs cricket on the horizon.

“These four games should have been the pinnacle and the priority for England in this part of the year, not the white-ball game,” he added.

“There have been tight moments in all three of the Tests that India have won, but India have managed to take back control of the match very quickly in all three – often in the space of an hour.”

Another former England captain, Sir Andrew Strauss, also highlighted his disappointment at the way in which England succumbed to spinners Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel, who took 17 wickets in the match between them.

“You’re just really dispirited,” Strauss said. “You’re hoping England have learned lessons, to show some fight and for us to be able to sign off saying ‘well, yes they’ve lost the series, but there are some positives’.

“We didn’t see a lot of that. You look at Dan Lawrence I suppose, how he played in both innings actually, but it was sadly lacking from other players.

“It’s so hard in Test cricket where one team gets on top, and they get a psychological hold on the opposition. It’s very hard to turn that around. That’s what England have experienced over the last three weeks.

“Their frailties got exposed. Steve Waugh used to talk about mental disintegration. It wasn’t about sledging, it was about the persistence of the Indian spinners and England had no real answer for it.”

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