Archie Vaughan: I don’t talk cricket with Dad, he just lets me enjoy it

With a surname like his, there is no way for Archie Vaughan to escape the inevitable comparisons, but the teenager says he is full of admiration for his father Michael’s hands-off approach.

As a top-order batsman who bowls useful off-spin – just like his dad – 19-year-old Archie burst on to the scene during Somerset’s 2024 County Championship title tilt, taking 11 match wickets in a dramatic victory over Surrey.

In the final month of the season, he averaged 33.7 with the bat at the top of the order and took 15 wickets at an average of 20 apiece. After a successful end to the summer, Vaughan was awarded the England U19 captaincy for the tour of South Africa, a role his father undertook in 1994 before going on to lead England to a historic victory in the famous 2005 Ashes.

Speaking at Somerset’s pre-season media day from an umpire’s booth overlooking the green grass of Taunton, Vaughan jnr explains how the association with his father affects his cricket.

“To be honest I think he’s [Michael] quite conscious of just letting me go out there and play cricket freely and just enjoying it, if he thinks I’m not enjoying it then that’s probably where he’ll step in,” Vaughan tells Telegraph Sport.

“But a lot of the time we rarely talk about cricket and I think he just left all the work to the great coaches that we’ve got with England – he fully trusts their abilities.”

Having started playing his cricket at a club in Derbyshire and at age-group level for Cheshire, Vaughan joined the Somerset academy in 2020 when he was already a student at Millfield.

It was not until May last year that Vaughan signed his first professional contract at Taunton and he made his senior debut in the County Championship at the end of August. When asked about his father’s influence, Archie, who accidentally wore the wrong kit for his media duties, sporting the full white first-class kit instead of the club polo shirts, explains: “It’s been quite nice being down here and quite separate from him and he’s just let me get on with it, let the coaches do their work. I fully trust the coaches and I know he does too. But he just lets me go out and enjoy it, which I really admire.”

‘I’ve played with Rocky Flintoff since under-9s’

Vaughan was joined in the U19s in 2024 by another player whose father was part of that memorable series 20 years ago, Rocky Flintoff, although the pair have a longer-standing relationship than the pre-season training camp in the Autumn.

“It took me back to playing club cricket with him [Rocky] when we were in the under-9s and he must have been about six or something,” Vaughan says. “I’ve always thought he was in my year because he’s always been so much stronger and so mature for such a young age, but we get on really well.

“He’s a proper talent for such a young age and he’s gonna achieve some really good things with Lancashire and probably with England I presume.”

Flintoff junior was then called up to the England Lions, and went on to score a century against an Australia XI, but instead of his meteoric rise, Vaughan recalls a time before the pair had even been introduced to hard-ball cricket.

“I just remember playing club cricket with him, with a soft ball and then it’s quite surreal when we walk out playing in the Three Lions for the under-19s,” he says. “We definitely talked about that when we were out there, how far we’ve come.”

The England’s U19s won the three-match series in South Africa 1-0. In the second Test, Vaughan wrapped up victory with six wickets for just 19 runs, but says the tour had its challenges. “Being captain was a really good challenge and I was probably quite harsh on myself with the ball and I probably took myself off slightly too quick rather than give myself time,” he admits.

Asked if he enjoyed being captain, Vaughan, who speaks in a similarly measured way to his father on Test Match Special, says: “I did. It has sometimes put pressure on my batting and my bowling when I’ve captained for school, but I think I went into that tour just trying to enjoy it and leave my captaincy separate to my batting and bowling.”

How lockdown boredom led to spin success

Vaughan had primarily been a batsman before he started turning his arm over in lockdown due to the boredom of being locked inside. Instead of turning his attention to seam, which he admitted “hurt” his body, it was the attraction of a five-yard run-up that inspired the switch to spin. Vaughan is also tall, like his father, and that height will help him secure the combination of bounce and turn that can be so problematic for batsmen.

Somerset has traditionally been one of the most spin-friendly surfaces in the country, and it was in tandem with England left-arm tweaker Jack Leach that the county spun their way to victory over Surrey in September.

When asked about learning from the likes of Leach and Shoaib Bashir, Vaughan says: “It’s nice to hear perspective when Leachy or Bash say ‘it’s not coming out well’ and I think ‘well, they must be bowling well all the time, they play for England’.

“But they do have these problems and it’s nice to manage my expectations when I’m quite early on in my bowling career. So hearing it from experienced guys like that really helps.”

Although admittedly seeing himself as more of a batsman while he continues to develop his spin, Vaughan can see his future as an all-rounder. “I think my batting is just a few years ahead of my bowling, it’s easy for everyone to think that I’m an all-rounder after that game, but I think [my bowling] is still quite young and something that I’m trying to manage my own expectations on because it’s definitely not coming out like that at the minute.”

When asked about his own ambitions, Vaughan remains focused on the more immediate task of performing well for Somerset, and securing a place in the first County Championship team of the season.

For now, England and following in his famous father’s footsteps can wait.