India should win this game and level the series 1-1 going to Lord’s: Michael Vaughan

Former England captain and commentator Michael Vaughan has stated that India should win the ongoing Birmingham Test quite comfortably and level the series 1-1 before they move to the third Test of the series at Lord’s in London.

It’s important to note that India is currently playing the Birmingham Test without Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested citing workload management. With India already leading by 244 runs with nine more wickets in hand, they are strong favorites to win the Test and level the series.

"India should win this game, it should be 1-1 going to Lord's. Bumrah will come back into the side, probably at the expense of Prasidh Krishna. If India play the same intense cricket they have done for three days, if they can carry on that mindset they should ask enough questions of England this week to level the series," Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.

Furthermore, Vaughan feels the Shubman Gill-led side would be aiming to set a target of around 500 for England in the fourth innings. Notably, Mohammed Siraj, who is leading the bowling attack with a six-fer, played a crucial role in the first innings.

"Look, no one has ever chased over 420, so you look at 450 as your first banker, but I think Shubman will want to have 500. I was really impressed by the way India batted late today where they went out and played their shots, and they got off to a flying start. One of the reasons you have deep batting is for these kinds of situations as well," he said.

"In my mind as a captain, I would not want to be going into Day 5 with no wickets down for England. I would want to give myself enough time tomorrow night to get England 2-3 wickets down. If England are tired now, we have an issue, because they will have to rotate so much over the course of the next few weeks," he added.

"It might be as simple as he (Siraj( knows when he has to lead. When Jasprit is not around, he knows he is the senior bowler, he probably gets his choice of end as well. I think he is a wonderful character," Vaughan concluded.

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