England, on Sunday night, at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, scripted their second T20 World Cup win, 12 years after their first. They beat Pakistan by 5 wickets in their 138-run chase to become the first ever side to hold both the ODI and the T20 World Cup trophy as the same time. The Eoin Morgan-led side had won the ODI World Cup back in 2019, after bouncing back from the humiliation in the 2015 edition. After the win, former England captain Michael Vaughan hailed the Buttler-led side before sending out a blunt message to Team India and BCCI saying that they should “swallow pride” and look at England for inspiration.
Team India were the overwhelming favourites last year at the T20 World Cup in the UAE. But suffered a forgettable group-stage exit after losses to Pakistan and New Zealand. Following the event, Rohit Sharma was made the new skipper, Rahul Dravid was announced as the new head coach and India worked on a new batting template, playing a more aggressive brand of cricket. But results didn’t change much.
India won all their bilateral ties in the T20I format in the last 12 months, but failed to make the Asia Cup final in September and then lost to England in the semis in T20 World Cup last week.
“England should be winning World Cups because they have the best squad but we often see the best teams not living up to their billing. In the 2019 World Cup final, England had the rub of the green and they did this time as well. But they deserve that luck because they have done things right for so long by committing to a style. England never panic. In 2019 they lost games early in the tournament to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Here they lost to Ireland. It could have been all over both times. But they have this mentality of when it matters they know how to win. They have good game players,” Vaughan wrote in his column in The Telegraph.
“This group of England white ball players is extraordinary and for once English cricket has a trendsetting team the rest of the world should emulate. How are England going about their business? What do they do? If I was running Indian cricket, I would swallow my pride and look at England for inspiration,” he added.
This isn’t the first time Vaughan has been bold with his statement on India cricket. After India’s World Cup exit on Thrusday, he lambasted the side calling them the “most under-performing white-ball team in history.”
“Since winning 50 over World Cup what have they done? Nothing. India are playing a white-ball game that is dated and have done for years,” he had written. “India are the most under-performing white-ball team in history. Every player in the world who goes to the Indian Premier League says how it improves their game but what have India ever delivered?”
