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Former England captain Michael Vaughan has hit out at the England team for being nice and not showing the “bite” in the ongoing Ashes series. The England team were able to avoid a fourth consecutive loss in Sydney as old guards Stuart Broad and James Anderson did the job with the bat to earn a thrilling draw. But, Vaughan believes had the team shown their true colours, the result could have been different. He compared the current team to the New Zealand team as they are considered ‘nice guys’ of cricket.
“I think what he’s shown this week, and we’ve all been crying out for the first three Test matches, I think England are a better team when there’s a bit of bite in that team,” Vaughan was quoted saying to foxsports.com.au.
The 47-year-old was successful in winning the Ashes in 2005 when a young group of players came to their best. The likes of Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff all contributed back as England won the prestigious trophy under Vaughan's captaincy.
“I’m not saying chirp, but a bit of rivalry, a little bit of heated debate, the situation when Bairstow and Stokes had a bit of fruit from the crowd.
“They’re the kind of spirited performances we’ve seen this week in the light of 36-4, England had to come out and fight and they did.
“People don’t like it when you say you want them to be a bit nasty, but I think England plays better when their backs are against the wall,” the 47-year-old added.
“People say they’re not trying, they don’t care, these guys care hugely, it’s just not gone their way.
“But this is the platform that you’ve got to fight every single week and no one likes to use the terminology of ‘nasty’ because it’s not right and they’ll say New Zealand play lovely cricket and they’re the nicest guys in the world, that’s New Zealand, England have always played better cricket when they’ve had a bit of bite in them and that’s what I want to see going forward,” Vaughan said.
Joe Root's side was lucky to escape defeat in the fourth Test despite injuries to Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler. Both the players injured their fingers in the first innings, while Bairstow hung in to score England's first and only hundred in the Ashes. Buttler, though was slightly unfortunate as he will return home to England after injuring his index finger.
Australia have missed a golden opportunity to do a whitewash courtesy of the draw but will have their head up as they will try to win the fifth Test. The final Test match will begin on January 14 in Hobart as confidence will be high in the Aussie camp. Pat Cummins' side leads the Ashes 3-0 and will be posed to drop the curtains on a winning note.
