‘Be angry and challenge Kohli’

Michael Vaughan goads the pace duo of Broad and Anderson to step up and trap Virat on front foot

Be angry and challenge Virat Kohli, urged former captain Michael Vaughan to an English side hosting an ambitious India, for long seeking to shed the poor travellers' tag, in a highly-anticipated Test series.

Besides, the 43-year-old who opened for his country for almost a decade, wants the seasoned Alastair Cook to show consistency and skipper Joe Root to convert his starts into monumental knocks. Cook has played alongside the player-turned-expert in the beginning of his career.

He prefers a five-man bowling attack and last but not the least, Vaughan goaded the pace duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson to "step up and challenge Virat Kohli's front foot".

"Joe Root needs to hammer home to his men that they have a point to prove and try to replicate that angry England team that arrived at Headingley and hammered Pakistan in their last Test. Go back and say to the players: 'What were you thinking that first day at Headingley?" Vaughan wrote in the 'Daily Telegraph'.

"Sometimes it is not done in team chats. Sometimes you are better off speaking to individuals. Go to each individual and ask: 'Why did you arrive in Leeds with more intensity'?"

England crushed Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs in the Headingley Test in June.

"This England team has to find that attitude without first having to be stirred into a response through criticism after a hammering. Maybe the Adil Rashid furore will help," said Vaughan, who was one of the key characters involved in the Rashid "furore".

"England will not win every game, they are not good enough, but their mindset and mentality can be the same every week."

Regarding the prolific Root, he said, "He averages over 50 from 16 Tests as captain. I would have snatched your hand off for that average. The only problem for Joe is that he has not scored the hundreds he should have done.

"He has found his form in the one-day game and got out of his system the frustration and anger, and trying to bat like someone else rather than trusting his own game. All he needs is to be himself."

He thought the way to go is to wear the Indian bowlers down.

"This is the perfect series. The pitches will be good, he is a great player of spin and you can wear India's seamers down because I don't think they will be that disciplined. Outfields will be rapid. Everything is set up for Joe to have a great series." As for Cook, Vaughan expects consistency from the most experienced player in the current set-up.

"Alastair Cook needs to find consistency. One massive score in a series along with loads of low scores is no good. He needs consistency over the next five games. And he has to drag Keaton Jennings with him."

"Yes, Cook has to look after his own performance, but it would be nice to take Jennings with him so whenever he leaves the Test team he has made sure England have a decent, half-experienced opening batsman to take on his mantle."

The ex-captain also expressed his views about the much-anticipated clash between Kohli and the pair of Anderson and Broad.

"I was critical of them before Headingley. They were outstanding in that game and they will have to be outstanding again.

"You expect Broad and Anderson to step up and challenge Kohli's front foot. Bowl outside off-stump and then throw the odd one in straight to get him playing across the line and scissor his feet," he added.

Speaking about the Indian run-machine's batting, he observed, "You need his front left-foot going over to the off side, he then starts doubting where his off-stump is and playing squarer on the off side which is when the outside edge comes into play.

"England did it in the one-day series at times. He was vulnerable a yard outside off-stump and the likes of Anderson and Broad have to hang it out there and say 'Come to us'. If there is any movement in the air they will be a real threat."

‘indian pace has unusual variety'

Former England skipper Alastair Cook feels India's pace battery has variety and depth, something that they have lacked as a touring side all these years.

"India seem to have got a good variety of bowlers, especially pace bowlers, which is probably unusual. They have strength in depth in their pace bowling," said cook ahead of the first Test beginning here on Wednesday.

"Over the last couple of years - certainly in the last 10 years I've played them - they haven't had the option of playing five or six different types of seamers. That's different to what I have experienced in the past but we'll see over the next six weeks."

The form of the India's top order seems to be a cause of concern for the visitors but Cook backed struggling Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara to come good in the series.

"With very good players, form is certainly temporary. The reason they're very good players is the number of runs they've scored in the past over a sustained period of time," he said.

"That's why they're the number one side in the world. You can go a couple of innings not scoring any runs, and suddenly you get a couple away and start to get that rhythm and timing back, and you get a big one. That is the nature of the beast, certainly with top-order batting," Cook said.