Michael Vaughan said he felt refreshed on the eve of the Test series against India and had no regrets about giving up the leadership of the one-day side.
LONDON: England captain Michael Vaughan said he felt refreshed on the eve of the Test series against India and had no regrets about giving up the leadership of the one-day side.
Although still available for limited overs internationals, Vaughan missed the recent one-day series against the West Indies, where England drew the Twenty20s at 1-1 but lost the 50-over matches 2-1, to allow new one-day skipper Paul Collingwood to establish himself in the role.
"I feel very refreshed," Vaughan told repoters at Lord's, where the first Test of a three-match series starts on Thursday.
Nasser Hussain, when handing over the Test captaincy to Vaughan four years ago, said he felt the team had "moved on" under the Yorkshire batsman's leadership during a preceding one-day series.
But Vaughan said on Wednesday he hadn't experienced any such feelings. "Me and Colly are great mates. We've been speaking a lot over the last few weeks.
"The big test was when I saw Colly lead them out in the Twenty20 game would I feel any bitterness or resentment and I didn't feel any of that so I guess it's the right decision to move forward."
England are set to field an inexperienced pace attack at Lord's in the absence of injured quicks Stephen Harmison (hernia) and Andrew Flintoff (ankle), with Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad vying to make their debut.
Broad took five for 76 against India while playing for England Lions against India last weekend and Vaughan said: "Tremlett's bowling nicely, Broady got five for against India and Jimmy Anderson got five for in the Roses match.
The England captain said he expected his side to face a tougher examination than the one his side encountered earlier in the season while defeating the West Indies 3-0 in a four-match series.
"It will be a bigger challenge. The Indian side are full of experience, probably more so in the batting so it's going to be an exciting challenge for our young four-man attack to try to outdo them and get 20 wickets in a Test match.
"Of course inexperience is new but it's exciting. We don't have Harmison, Flintoff, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones from that great attack we had in 2005 (when England won the Ashes) but it's new, it's very exciting for us all to see how they (the new attack) react to playing in front of a lot of people and against a very good batting team."
Vaughan said England would field a four-man attack but didn't give anything more way beyond saying left-arm spinner Monty Panesar would play.
However, he did add that some of the quicks had suffered niggling injuries with Hoggard enduring a back spasm although Vaughan said his Yorkshire colleague was now fit.
Vaughan, who five years ago scored 615 runs against India with three hundreds at an average of 102.50 with a best of 197, said: "When the Indians come you always know they are going to create a great atmosphere in and around the ground with their support.
They are always great series to play in. "I always feel like I play quite well at Lord's," said Vaughan, who in nine Tests at the ground has scored five hundreds. "But tomorrow's a new day."
During the 2002 series occasional off-spinner Vaughan clean bowled India batting star Sachin Tendulkar.
Ask why he didn't bowl himself more often, Vaughan replied: "Off-spin generally hasn't been a huge success in the longer format of the game, in Test match cricket or four-day cricket the last few years but I have got a little bit of success against India so you never know."
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