Michael Vaughan casts a large shadow over England’s test number 3 spot that the other candidates will find it difficult to emerge from. The ex-England captain reminded anyone who cared to notice that he’s still a class act this week by scoring a fluent and ‘exceptional’ century against Surrey. OK, so, a one-day warm-up game in Dubai is hardly an Ashes test at Lords, but the signs are good for the man who relinquished the test captaincy seven months ago. It shows that he is committed to scoring runs for Yorkshire, and regaining his place in the England side.
Vaughan has never been a prolific one-day batsman – to be fair, he has never even been anything more than a good county player for Yorkshire in all forms of cricket. With a first class average of 37 and a domestic one-day average of 28, you’d be hard pressed to see exactly why he got picked for England in the first place. That is, until you watch him bat. Vaughan oozes class and to watch him bat in full flow is one of the greatest sights in modern cricket. In recent years, the sense of anticipation has been heightened somewhat by the knowledge that the display could be over at any minute, but he is still a batsman of undoubted quality.
Vaughan is a man for the big occasion and has seemingly found it hard to recreate his test form in county cricket, so it seems slightly strange that everyone seems to be clamouring for him to get back into the test team through weight of runs in county cricket. He’s never done it before, so why should he do it now? His test record, although admittedly more patchy in recent years than it was in his 2002 heyday, stills stands up against up better than most. With more test hundreds than any other current English batsman, and more than all the other candidates for the number 3 spot combined, I find it hard to see how the selectors could look much further than Vaughan for this crucial Ashes summer.
I’m a big fan of Owais Shah, and think he’s been treated harshly over the last few years as the England selectors have refused to drop any of their much-vaunted batsmen. He should have been given a chance to prove himself years ago, and not made to sit on the sidelines for so long. The desperation that seems to be present in his batting obviously stems from the knowledge that he has one chance to cement his place as, in his case, unlike those of his colleagues, failure does not seem to be an option.
That said, I don’t believe Shah is a test number 3. He’s a very good middle order player. But, at test match level, a number 3 needs be someone who can come in against test class opening bowlers from the second ball of the innings and dominate. I don’t think Shah can do that. Vaughan can, and has proved it many a time. I know who I’d rather see walking out to face the Aussies at 3 for 1 on the first day of an Ashes series – and I’m pretty sure I know who Ricky Ponting would rather see.
It’s not just his class as a batsman that should make Vaughan a shoe-in for the Ashes. Vaughan thrives against Australia. In his first series against them, he dominated them as an individual, scoring more than 600 runs in the series. Then, in 2005, he dominated them as a captain, creating a team that believed they could beat the Australians, and outmanoeuvring Ricky Ponting at every turn, to regain the sacred urn. Vaughan is the most successful England captain of all time and would surely be a great man for Strauss to call on for advice.
Vaughan is only 34, the same age as Ricky Ponting – younger than Tendulkar and Dravid. There’s no reason why he can’t bat for England for a year or two. Graham Thorpe was recalled to the England side at the same age and went on to be the middle order rock that Vaughan the Captain’s early success was built on, scoring another 2500 runs before his eventual retirement two years later. England don’t need Vaughan for two years – they just need him for one summer. They don’t need 2500 runs from him – they just need two Ashes centuries that could turn the tide in their favour.
