England disrespected Test cricket during Oval loss to Sri Lanka: Michael Vaughan

Former England Test opener Michael Vaughan believes Ollie Pope’s team disrespected Test cricket during their third Test match loss against Sri Lanka at Kennington Oval, London. The hosts suffered a eight wicket loss against the visitors despite playing in favourable home conditions.

After taking a 62-run lead in the first innings, England were bundled out for a paltry score of 156 runs. The hosts had a great opportunity to build on their lead but the batters threw away their wickets. England’s wicket-keeper bat Jamie Smith top-scored with 67 runs but none of the other batters could show any resistance.

The next best score for England was 35 by opener Dan Lawrence and seven batters were dismissed without even reaching the two-digit mark. Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando scalped four and three wickets respectively.

“They (England) have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period.”

“I felt that they disrespected Test cricket and disrespected Sri Lanka in the third Test by being over-aggressive with both the bat and in their field placings. England have made a habit of becoming a bit complacent after a good period—I think of the start of the Ashes or earlier this year in Rajkot—and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for the tougher Tests that lie in wait in 2025. There is no way they will get away with playing like this against India or Australia,” Vaughan wrote for the Telegraph.

“For me, the intensity and concentration in the big moments were missing this week. It was all a bit flimsy, cocky even. They took the mickey out of the game. The answer in Test cricket’s hottest moments cannot always be attack, attack, attack,” he added.

Vaughan reckons England’s over-aggression in the field led to their downfall against Sri Lanka.

“I felt England’s bowling was fine this week, but I thought the over-aggressive fields they went for did the bowlers a disservice and put them on the back foot immediately. They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this wasn’t the match or pitch for that,” Vaughan said.

“This was a top-of-off pitch, two or three slips and a gully, with extra cover in. They had six slips, short leg and leg slip. It was almost as if they had 650 on the board, but they had half of that.”

England will next take on arch-rivals Australia in three T20Is and five ODIs while playing at home.