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Michael Vaughan thinks that Garry Kirsten might be an ideal choice to replace Andy Flower as England test coach.

Flower left his post last week. So, the England Cricket Board is looking for his replacement and they have shortlisted some guys one of whom is believed to be Kirsten.

Kirsten is widely respected as an international coach. He has coached a couple of top teams i.e. India and South Africa so far and has been immensely successful with both those sides.

The one quality of Kirsten which everyone lauds a lot is that he remains very calm and composed. Also, he never tries to put too much pressure on the players. He just lets them enjoy the game and by doing that, he manages to get the best out of them.

Barring Kirsten, Australia’s former all rounder Tom Moody and England One Day International coach Ashley Giles are also in the race to take over as the Three Lions test coach, but, these two guys haven’t had as much success as Kirsten has had at the international level. So, the South African might leave them behind.

When Vaughan was asked who would be his pick as the next England test coach, he said, “I would say Garry Kirsten. For me, he is one of the greatest modern day coaches and having him in the set up would benefit England immensely.”
When asked about Andy Flower resigning, the former England captain said, “I think he made the right call. He had been around since almost 6 years and that’s enough for a coach. The time had come for him to leave.”

Under Andy Flower, England won a total of 3 Ashes series and all of them on the trot which was quite remarkable.

Michael Vaughan thinks if the England test side doesn’t make significant improvements, they will suffer a whitewash in the ongoing Ashes series.

The Poms have already suffered two consecutive defeats in the series and now, they will make their way to Perth where their record hasn’t been that great. They have always struggled at that venue.

The last time that England had played a test match at Perth against Australia 3 years back, they had been defeated quite comprehensively and the man who was responsible for that was none other than Mitchell Johnson who is doing quite a bit of damage in the ongoing series too.

Speaking in a television show, Vaughan said, “It’s going like that 2006-07 Ashes series. Marcus Trescothick who was a key member of the England side at that time had returned home before the start of the first test match. This time around, Jonathan Trott has done so and he was equally important for this side.”

“It’s just not the defeats; it’s the way this English side is playing. They are looking completely rattled and that’s the real concern. You just can’t bat like this.”
“England’s performance had actually started to deteriorate towards the end of the last Ashes. They hadn’t been able to play great cricket in the last 3 test matches back home and those were worrying signs. If you are playing on your home soil and you are leading by 2-0, you should just go for the kill, but, they didn’t do that. They played with negative mindset.”

“If England has to come back from this stage, they will have to make big improvements. They are up against an Australian side which is really hungry for success.”
England has won the last three Ashes series in a row.

Michael Vaughan thinks that it’s not going to be one-way traffic for England in the upcoming Ashes as they will have to face a more settled Australian team this time around.

When Australia had toured England for the Ashes a couple of months back, they were looking completely unsettled. Except two or three players, nobody was a certainty in the XI.

In the first couple of matches of the series, the Kangaroos struggled a lot. But, as the series went on, they started finding the right kind of balance and towards the end of the series; they gave England a run for their money.

Now for the upcoming Ashes, the Australian team is looking much more settled. Not many places in the XI are up for grabs. The Australians will be playing in their home conditions too. So, one cannot just write off Australia for this Ashes. They will not let England just run away with the games and that’s what Vaughan also had to say when he was asked about the upcoming Ashes.

The former England captain said, “Australia will be more settled this time around and they will have a good idea of the conditions as well. So, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy for England.”

“The pitches in Australia are going to be different. They will be a bit quicker and the Aussies are used to playing on those kinds of surfaces. So, they will find it easier than the English players.”

“England will have to play better than how they played at home. They were clearly not at their best this summer, but, they managed to play better than the opposition and that’s what you need to do.”

England had beaten Australia by 3-0 in the previous Ashes series.

The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has said that England should have done much better on the first day of the second Ashes test match.
England batted first after winning the toss at Lord’s and when the play ended on the first day, they had lost 7 wickets for 289.

Analysing the first day’s play, Vaughan said, “It was a beautiful batting track. The ball was coming on nicely and I thought that it would be a fruitful day for England. But, it wasn’t to be.”

“I wouldn’t say Australia bowled impressively throughout the day. But, they bowled well in patches. Ryan Harris in particular was fantastic. He got nice shape going and created a lot of problems for the batters.”

“The English camp would be disappointed with how things went on the first day. They had the opportunity to bat Australia out of the match by posting a huge total in the first innings, but, they couldn’t do that.”

When asked about Ian Bell who scored his second consecutive hundred in the series, Vaughan said, “He is a class act. He again played a great knock. But, it would have been wonderful if he had been there at the crease at the end of the day’s play.”

“I would say that the game is still evenly poised. It’s important for England to get a few quick runs tomorrow morning. On the other hand, Australia would like to wrap up the England innings as soon as possible.”

Vaughan also hailed Michael Clarke’s pro activeness as captain. He said, “Clarke was fantastic as captain on the first day. A couple of his bowling changes were brilliant. To bring Shane Watson into the attack so early in the innings was certainly an inspired decision.”

The English cricket season has started again, meaning there is plenty of opportunities to attend matches – or watch coverage live on television – but also that there will be lots of opportunities to bet on the matches, including placing future bets on which team will go on to win the County Cricket Championship. At the moment Warwickshire are the favourites to retain the title they won last year, but that could all change when the action gets underway of course.

However, as exciting as betting on the cricket season is, that doesn’t mean that it is the only fun way of combining the game and gambling – for example there is the cricket slots game The Umpire Strikes Back.

The pun in the title may be corny, but that is the only aspect of this game that you could claim this about, because this game is a fine mix of traditional and modern and can be found at places like jackpotcity.co.uk.

The former comes in the fact that it is created in the style of a classic pub style game, with three reels and one pay line, while the latter comes from the cricket graphics on the reels (including the likes of cricket bats, helmets, pads and the umpire of the title), plus the maximum cash jackpot.

Michael Vaughan has advised the out of form English opener Nick Compton to relax and not to think too much about his technique.

Compton is going through a dreadful phase at the moment. He is looking horribly out of touch and in his last 5 test innings, he has scored just 47 runs at an average of 9.40.

There have been speculations that Compton might be left out of the England squad for the upcoming Ashes series and on his place, Joe Root who has been in terrific form recently might be sent to open with Alastair Cook.

When asked about Compton’s recent form, Vaughan said, “His form has been poor in the last couple of test matches. He was struggling in domestic circuit as well before this series. I had seen him bat for Somerset at this venue a couple of weeks back and he had scored runs with a strike rate of almost 30. He was finding it very hard to hit the ball from the middle of the bat.”

“Players start thinking about different kinds of things when they go through a bad patch and the same is happening with Nick at the moment. He is thinking too much about his technique and that doesn’t help. He needs to switch off for some time.”

When asked about Joe Root’s hundred on the second day of the Headingley test match, Vaughan said, “That was a flawless knock. This young man is a special player and I see him as the future England captain. His temperament is just superb. He was playing test match cricket on his home ground for the first time, but, he didn’t look nervous at all and that’s incredible for a 22 years old guy.”

Root scored 104 runs off 167 balls in England’s first innings in the second test match against New Zealand.

Michael Vaughan has said that South Africa is playing some great cricket in test matches at the moment and it’s not easy to replace them as the no. 1 test team.

South Africa had become the no. 1 team in test matches by defeating England in a 3-match test series last year. They have been at that position since then.

After becoming no. 1, South Africa went to Australia and defeated them by 1-0 in a 3- test match series. Then, they played a home series against Pakistan and white washed them.

When asked how hard it is to displace South Africa from that no. 1 spot, Vaughan said, “It’s very hard. They are playing some incredible cricket at the moment and they are winning not only at their home, but, overseas too.”
“You look at their record and you will see that they have won test matches almost all over the world in the last few years. I think they are too far ahead than the other teams.”

When asked about Alastair Cook’s defensive captaincy being blamed for England’s failure to win the test series in New Zealand, Vaughan said, “Look, my opinion is a little bit different. There is no doubt that Alastair Cook’s captaincy was baffling at times in the series against New Zealand, but, you have to give him time to become a good captain. This was only his second series.”

Vaughan praised the captaincy of Brendon McCullum in that series. The former England captain said, “McCullum was absolutely fantastic as a skipper. He hardly missed a trick. He was very clear in his mind when to be aggressive and when to sit back. I am really impressed with his captaincy.”

Michael Vaughan has said that the England team is the clear favourite to win the upcoming Ashes series which is going to start from 10th of July.

The Australian team is currently playing the test series in India and is struggling in that series. The kangaroos have been easily beaten in the first two test matches and they are really looking an unsettled unit.

When asked which team is the favourite to win the Ashes series in England, Vaughan said, “Its England; no doubt about that. The England team is far better in quality than the Australians. The Australians are really going through a very tough time. Their test team is not settled at all. They don’t have batsmen who can fill the void created by the retirement of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey.”

“Not only in the batting department, they are struggling in the bowling department as well. They don’t have any quality spinner. Nathan Lyon is their main spinner and look how he has performed in the first test match against India. He was bowling on a spin friendly track and in spite of that, he looked ineffective.”

When asked whether he thinks that Michael Clarke is the best batsman in the world, Vaughan said, “There are a few batsmen in the world who are playing some extraordinary cricket at the moment. It’s very tough to pick the best out of them. They are equally good. Michael Clarke is one of those batsmen. Hashim Amla and Alastair Cook are the other ones.”

When asked about the fast bowlers of Australia, Vaughan said, “Australia has got some decent young fast bowlers, but, they don’t have that much experience. I am not sure whether they will be able to soak the pressure of playing in Ashes series.”

Michael Vaughan has said that Joe Root should open the batting with Alastair Cook in the upcoming test series against New Zealand.

Root made his debut in test cricket by playing in the fourth test match against India in December last year. Root didn’t open in that test match. He batted at no. 6, but, his performance was brilliant. He scored a half century in his very first test innings.

When asked if he is impressed with how Root batted in his debut test match, Vaughan said, “Yes, It was an impressive knock by the youngster. I like his approach. He was playing his first test match, but, he didn’t look tentative. He was calm and handled the spinners beautifully. He didn’t try to push the ball hard and played with soft hands.”

“When I had seen him bat for the first time, I knew that he would go on to play for England pretty soon. He has not even played too many first class games, but, he has got brilliant temperament. He has also got a good technique and he can handle the quality fast bowlers up front.”

“I think he should be given the opportunity to open the batting with Alastair Cook in the test matches against New Zealand. Nick Compton had been given chances in India, but, he didn’t manage to play even one big knock.”
“I would also like to bring Jonny Bairstow back into the team and would slot him at no. 6. He is also one hell of a talent. Unfortunately, he didn’t get enough chances in the test series against India, but, he deserves a place in the team.”

The test series between England and New Zeeland will start from 6th of March. The first test match will be played at University Oval, Dunedin.