Former England captain Michael Vaughan has urged that the Ben Stokes-led side should not look at a full reset to the current structure if they lose the Ashes at Adelaide. The visitors find themselves 213-8 after Day 2 of the Test match, still trailing by 158 runs.
The 51-year-old said that even if England did lose the Adelaide Test, they must aim to win the Melbourne and Sydney Tests and take lessons out of them.
“English cricket often works in four-year cycles, home and away Ashes series. One or two players need to go because they aren’t good enough at this level, but a number of them have enough talent. If they are coached and managed correctly and given the right kind of preparation, they are going to be fine in four years.”
“It’s the only way I can see that English cricket can possibly be competitive in Australia, if they stick with some of the players that have the experience. Bad experience is better than no experience,” Vaughan told the BBC.
The former right-hander felt that some of the players in the current setup could come in 2030-31 when England come to Australia for the Ashes, adding that a few of the players needed to be hardened by the current circumstances.
“There are a lot of players in this England side that should still be coming in four years’ time. There will be one or two that will fall by the wayside, and a couple of the senior pros might disappear.”
“What I don’t want English cricket to do is think ‘all these players have failed, we’ll put them in the bin and start again’. You want more players to be hardened by playing in these conditions,” he said.
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Vaughan said that victory in the Sydney Test of 2002-03 was beneficial in the long run.
“I look back to 2002-03, we were 4-0 down and won in Sydney. I learnt a lot about the next few years from winning that one game. England can’t think there is nothing to gain from the next two games. If this goes wrong, and it looks like it may do, Melbourne and Sydney are still opportunities to learn for the next time they come or the next time they play Australia,” he said.
