England must be patient in their pursuit of victory over India in the third Test at Headingley, says former captain Michael Vaughan.
India reached 215-2 on day three, a huge turnaround from their first-innings 78 all out, but still 139 short of making England bat again.
“History tells you that India aren’t going to win it,” Vaughan said.
“England are way ahead. They should win convincingly. It might just take longer than they thought.”
After England racked up 432, India were 354 behind on first innings – and no team has overturned such a large deficit to win a Test.
Joe Root’s side are without a win in their past seven Tests, including a final-day capitulation to lose the second Test against India at Lord’s.
“England just have to be patient,” Vaughan told BBC Test Match Special. “They are not used to winning, and when that is the case you can sometimes panic.
“It might take an hour. It might take an hour and a half. But you have to stay patient on or around the fourth-stump line, bringing the batsmen forward.
“If you do that on a day-four wicket, with a second new ball, I am pretty sure you’ll create chances.”
Headingley has a history of remarkable results. Ian Botham in 1981 and Ben Stokes in 2019 engineered sensational Ashes wins for England, but the home side have also been on the wrong end of defeats by Sri Lanka in 2014 and West Indies in 2017.
Vaughan, who captained England in 51 of his 82 Tests, said: “India can’t afford a half an hour blip.
“They have to win every minute of this Test if they are going to win this Test. England will know that.
“India need to score another 280 runs, and leave England a chase of 140. With England’s batting line-up, you never know.”
England will have the second new ball available immediately on Saturday morning as they look to dislodge Cheteshwar Pujara, who is 91 not out, and India captain Virat Kohli, who is unbeaten on 45.
“We’ve got the new ball in the morning so hopefully we can start well, get a couple of early ones, and they are under pressure again,” said England seamer Craig Overton, who claimed one of the two India wickets to fall on Friday.
“We’ve got to try and make them play as much as possible. We’ve got to look to make the most of the new ball, because it will do a little bit off the surface, and then stick in for the rest of the day.”
India opener Rohit Sharma, who made 59, said India are keen to “correct the mistakes” of their first innings.
“The new ball will be crucial for us, if we can bat that out,” he said. “The wicket has pretty much slowed down now and the batters have a good chance to dig in and get those big runs.
“You never know what can happen, especially if we have a good day tomorrow.”
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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