England capitulated with no spirit or fight, says Michael Vaughan
Joe Root’s side lead by just 10 runs after collapsing to 103 for eight in the deciding Test with West Indies.
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Your support makes all the difference.Former England captain Michael Vaughan said England needed to answer big questions after they showed a lack of spirit or fight against West Indies.
Joe Root’s side were staring at a Test series defeat after another poor batting display in Grenada.
After drawing the first two Tests they needed to win the final contest to take the series but ended day three of the decider on 103 for eight for a lead of just 10, leading to Vaughan criticising their performance.
“To see the England team just capitulate like that with no spirit or fight – I am afraid there are big questions to ask,” Vaughan said on BT Sport.
“The lack of resistance in this England team is non-existent.
“As ex-players, you watch and think: ‘yes, it is tough, bubble life, Covid throughout these past two years with England travelling, it has been pretty difficult at times.’
“But when you continuously see them just collapse and shown no fight, no spirit and togetherness… I hear all the time that the England squad are quite tight and have a good spirit. No they haven’t.
“Spirit happens on the pitch, it doesn’t happen on the beach or by the pool. It happens on the pitch when you get partnerships working together and you fight your way through tricky situations. You don’t gift the opposition an easy win.”
Vaughan felt England lacked the needed mentality to deliver a series victory.
“It is about winning, it is as simple as that, it is high-level sport,” he said on BT Sport.
“You can try and put a positive on the first two games, there were some good individual performances, but England didn’t win.
“When the pressure goes on and you are expecting a team to perform, 0-0 in a series, England have completely been so far hammered in the game.”
Vaughan added: “Everything is about discipline and making strong, disciplined cricket for long periods of time. England just haven’t been able to do that for a good period of time now.
“It is just the pressure. The England side can’t seem to mentally be able to cope with the pressure.”
England batting coach Marcus Trescothick offered few excuses.
“It was disappointing. We are gutted really with how we performed. We have not got it right over the course of the day,” he said on BT Sport.
“They got more runs than we wanted them to do so, and we were just losing too many wickets and not building too many partnerships.
“I think the boys are fairly honest about what they have done and they will look at it and go: ‘we have made some poor decisions’.
“At the critical moments in the game we haven’t got it right. We can only put your hands up to that and look to come again. We all understand it wasn’t good enough and we need to be better.”
Trescothick added: “Today has not been right, but a lot of what we have done in the first two Test matches has really been good for the team and the team has produced some great performances, so let’s not judge it just on today.
“I will speak with the batters individually, and talk about certain situations, how the tour has gone for them, then we will look at what has happened over the course of the day, address it, sit down, try to make strides and make it better.
“It is a disappointing day today, but do not judge the whole series and how the team is performing on one day.”
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