NEW DELHI: Ahead of the forthcoming five-Test series in India, former captain Michael Vaughan has warned England that their Bazball strategy might be "absolutely destroyed" by the hosts' deadly spin attack.
With the squad winning 13 of the last 18 red-ball matches, England's aggressive style, known as Bazball after their head coach Brendon McCullum, has generated a lot of talk in the cricketing world over the past 18 months.
However, Vaughan claimed the approach might not be effective in India, citing England's difficulties against Australian spinner Nathan Lyon during the Ashes series.
"Ultimately the hardest place to play in the world is India and if you actually go back to the Ashes when Nathan Lyon was fit and bowling nicely, Australia were 2-0 up in the series," Vaughan told foxsports.com.au.
"That was just one innings and a few overs in the first innings at Lords… Nathan came out with a lovely line the other week where he said he's 2-nil up against Bazball.
"Now that's just one spinner, if you look at that five-for he got at Edgbaston and the field was spread and England got out to him by playing ridiculous shots at times."
As part of their ICC World Test Championships cycle, England will play five Tests in India, beginning in Hyderabad on January 25.
"If you add in Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel on spinning wickets in India, they may get blown away, they may get absolutely destroyed.
"They will go out and play exactly the same way, we've already spoken about the impact they are going to try and achieve in India with the way they play.
Shoaib Bashir among uncapped trio in England Test squad for India tour
"It will be great watching, but you will have to fancy three quality spinners might do a job on England when one quality spinner in Nathan Lyon did the job in English conditions. It's going to be very tough for them to win in India."
Four specialist spinners, including Jack Leach, the teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, and the uncapped pair of Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, were named by England on Monday as part of their 16-man squad for the Test series against India.
Following Hyderabad, the remaining four Test matches for England will be held in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamsala.
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