Former captain Michael Vaughan has hit out at the way England's batsman approach Test-match cricket as they face defeat to Australia in the final Test match of the Ashes.
The hosts were bowled out for 149 in their first innings and slumped to 203-6 in the second, still 129 runs behind Australia, and Vaughan isn't happy with how many of the players went out to bat.
He wrote in The Telegraph: "On the batting front I have concerns over the way the batsmen are setting out to play at the beginning of an innings. Test cricket is about tempo. I always talk about gears and knowing when to move up in Test cricket. You set the game up by playing low risk cricket shots for high reward.
"Joe Root is excellent at it. But he is also good enough to play a cut or drive early on without making a mistake. But not many are up to his standard so they need to realise you do not have to be so aggressive at the start of an innings. They need to remember the skill of getting in by slowly going through the gears.
"It might be that for an hour or so you only play a clip off the hip and leave everything outside off stump, or wait for one that is short and wide. A player has to work out his own gameplan."
Root is the only England batsman to have scored a century in this series.
Charlie Bennett
