Rohit is laidback, Bumrah is smiley bloke: Vaughan on India missing aggression in BGT

Former England captain Michael Vaughan highlighted India’s lack of aggressive leadership in the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy series. This wil be Rohit Sharma’s first tour to Australia as captain and Jasprit Bumrah will be donning the skipper’s hat for the 1st Test at Optus Stadium in Perth on November 22. Vaughan drawn parallels between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 team to the current one. He pointed out that the Indian team flourished under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and then Ajinkya Rahane alongside Ravi Shastri being the coach. Vaughan referred to Rohit as ‘laid-back’ and called Bumrah a ‘lovely, smiley bloke’.

“When they won here in 2018-19 and 2020-21, they had Kohli as captain first time, and Ajinkya Rahane for much of the second,” Vaughan wrote. “Both times, Ravi Shastri was head coach, so they had genuinely inspirational and charismatic leadership from at least one member of the axis. This time, it is Gautam Gambhir, who has had a poor start as head coach, and Rohit as captain, with Bumrah standing in while he is on paternity leave. Rohit is very laid-back, and Bumrah is just a lovely, smiley bloke. They are missing that snarl that you need to take down Australia,’ Vaughan said in his column in The Telegraph.

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Can India replicate past success?

Kohli became the 1st Indian captain to have won a Test series in Australia Down Under when India beat the hosts 2-1 in 2018-19. After Kohli left for his paternity leave, Rahane took over the captaincy and led India to a memorable 2-1 win in 2020-21.

“India need someone to step into Pujara’s shoes”

Vaughan also felt that the Indian team would need a batter like Cheteshwar Pujara who can make the bowlers toil hard.

“They also need someone to step into Cheteshwar Pujara’s shoes,” he said. “When teams have won in Australia over the past two decades, they have had a cornerstone to their batting. Someone who just really grinds the bowlers down, sending them into fourth and fifth spells. Pujara has done it brilliantly, so too Alastair Cook for England in 2010-11. You need dogged, determined, stubborn, selfish batting, and you only need a few shots to do it.”

Pujara’s value can be understood by the fact that even Josh Hazlewood said he was happy the former India number three wasn’t on this tour.