England must improve or face India whitewash, claims Vaughan

(Photo: Getty Images)

By Harvey Burgess

England face a humiliating whitewash in the Test series against India if they do not improve, claims former England captain Michael Vaughan.

The touring side maintained their record of never having lost to Bangladesh after a 22-run victory in the first Test in Chittagong. However, Vaughan was not impressed by England’s performance.

“If they perform like they did against Bangladesh, it’ll be 5-0,” the 41-year-old told the BBC. He went on to voice his concerns about England’s poor batting, adding: “England for such a long time are always 30 or 40 for three. If they’re 30 or 40 for three against India they’ll get blown away.”

England suffered two early-innings collapses in Chittagong, falling to 21-3 and 28-3 in the first and second innings respectively. Debutant opener Ben Duckett scored just 29 runs in total while captain Alistair Cook didn’t fare any better, totalling 16 runs across both innings.

India are currently ranked as the world number one side in Test cricket and come into the series off the back of a 3-0 win against New Zealand.

The home side’s bowling line-up features the world’s number one Test bowler in right-arm spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as well as slow left-armer Ravindra Jadeja, who is ranked at number 7.

England struggled against the spin of Bangladesh, with 19 of their 20 wickets taken by spinners Mehedi Hasan, Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan.

Coach Trevor Bayliss recognised the need for improvement in the bowling department, saying: “Our spin bowlers need to be a bit more consistent in length.”

However the Australian claimed there was little reason to adjust the batting line up after just one Test, adding: “It would be difficult to make a change after one Test, considering we won it as well. It certainly wasn’t easy but our batters will be better for it.”