agencies
LONDON, 22 JUNE: Former England captain Michael Vaughan feels that the Indian One-Day Internationals team that will be playing in the Champions Trophy final tomorrow are “better” than that which won the World Cup two years ago.
“India have been the team of the tournament so far. They are a fearless, aggressive bunch and I have not seen that from India before. They are better than the World Cup-winning side of 2011,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Daily Telegraph.
Like everyone else, Vaughan is also very impressed with the fielding standards set by new boys like Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli and feels that the current lot are out to create a legacy of their own.
“The young players play with freedom. They know this is their chance to create a legacy now that the great names have retired. They field brilliantly, creating chances for the bowlers through their agility,” he wrote. Vaughan said that India’s current crop of batsmen were more interested in hitting short-pitch bowling instead of swaying away from the line of the deliveries.
“With the bat, they look to score off the short ball instead of swaying out of the way of it. They hit the ball as hard as any Indian players I have ever seen. They play good, hard strokes that you see in Test cricket and it looks as if Duncan Fletcher is loving working with them.” Vaughan, however, believes that this is the best chance for the England team to win a limited-over tournament on the global platform. “This is a great chance for England to create history and win a global 50-over tournament," he wrote, adding: "We reached the final of the Champions Trophy in 2004 but could not quite get over the line. But this team can go one better. They (England) are a stronger one-day side than we were but that is cancelled out by the fact they are playing an India side better than the West Indies team who beat us nine years ago (2004).”

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