Michael Vaughan feels India will miss previous tours’ ‘snarl’ to take down Australia in Border-Gavaskar series

Former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons India will miss the previous tours’ aggressive captaincy of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane on the ongoing tour of Australia. Vaughan noted that while India’s full-time captain Rohit Sharma is very laid-back, vice-captain Bumrah is a smiley bloke.

Rohit is missing the opening Test against the Aussies after he became a father for the second time. Bumrah is leading for the second time in Test matches and he will look to get the best out of his players in the series opener.

Michael Vaughan wrote for the Telegraph, “When they won here in 2018-19 and 2020-21, they had Kohli as captain first time, and Ajinkya Rahane for much of the second,” Vaughan wrote. “Both times, Ravi Shastri was head coach, so they had genuinely inspirational and charismatic leadership from at least one member of the axis. This time, it is Gautam Gambhir, who has had a poor start as head coach, and Rohit as captain, with Bumrah standing in while he is on paternity leave. Rohit is very laid-back, and Bumrah is just a lovely, smiley bloke. They are missing that snarl that you need to take down Australia.”

On the other hand, Vaughan reckons India will need someone to fill in the big shoes of Cheteshwar Pujara, who played a key role in the success of the team on the previous two tours to Australia. Pujara scored 521 runs on the 2018-19 tour whereas he amassed 271 runs in four Test matches on the previous tour of Australia.

“They also need someone to step into Cheteshwar Pujara’s shoes,” he said. “When teams have won in Australia over the past two decades, they have had a cornerstone to their batting. Someone who just really grinds the bowlers down, sending them into fourth and fifth spells. Pujara has done it brilliantly, so too Alastair Cook for England in 2010-11. You need dogged, determined, stubborn, selfish batting, and you only need a few shots to do it.”

After electing to bat first, India are struggling at 93-6.