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Fletcher prescribes rest for Vaughan
England coach Duncan Fletcher said on Wednesday that he was not overly concerned by the recent slump of captain Michael Vaughan.
England coach Duncan Fletcher said on Wednesday that he was not overly concerned by the recent slump of captain Michael Vaughan and would be prescribing rest as the team skipper attempts to rediscover his form before the start of the Test series against the West Indies.
Vaughan scored just 47 runs in five innings during the NatWest Triangular Series where England failed to reach the final, which will be contested by West Indies and New Zealand at Lord's on Saturday.
England's leading batsman's top score was just 14 and he was out in similar manner in the last two innings attempting to chase a wide delivery.
Vaughan has said that he will spend the next two weeks before the opening Test against West Indies at Lord's working on his game.
He is also unlikely to join members of the Test line-up in the MCC side to face West Indies at Arundel next week.
"I'm not concerned about his form — he's a quality player," said Fletcher.
"It's important these players have a bit of a break because we've travelled over a thousand miles during this tournament and played quite a lot of cricket and mentally it's tiring.
"It's important he has a break and works on certain areas of his game, but I don't think there's that much to work on — it's a matter of getting out there in a relaxed manner and get back into the Test arena where we've done very well.
"At this stage if he played in that MCC game he probably wouldn't come back to the Test as fresh as he should be if he travels all that way to play even more cricket - we have to be careful that we don't make him stale."
Fletcher believes Vaughan's troubles are linked to the number of times England were forced to bat first by their inability to win the toss and face the worst conditions.
England's only victory during the competition was at Headingley over West Indies when Vaughan called correctly and bowled first.
"I thought the team got better and better as the tournament progressed," said Fletcher.
"If we'd have had a platform for people like Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss it would have made a big difference, but some of our quality players like Vaughan and (Marcus) Trescothick were not successful.
"We lost the toss in five games out of six and were put in on wickets where the ball moved around — we were the only side in the tournament to bat first so many times and it made it difficult for the top order to really get going.
"It's crucial in one-day cricket to get an opening stand if you're going to get big totals. It's important you get off to a good start in those first 15 overs and utilise them as effectively as you can and if you look at it we haven't done that."
Fletcher intends to review England's performance in the NatWest Series with the selectors before the start of the Test series and make his recommendations for the ICC Champions Trophy, which is being hosted by England for the first time next September.
"We've got to sit down as selectors and discuss a few things in the next week or so and have a look at what happened because otherwise there are certain things you may forget about which may be crucial later on," he added.
