‘They have shown their real class’: Michael Vaughan on Australia in Boxing Day Test

“The Aussies have played well for the last three games. They have shown their real class. All right, there’s question marks about some of the batting, but I think that’s more down to the pitches that they’re playing on. But they’ve really impressed me in Adelaide, Brisbane, and now here,” Vaughan told Fox Sports.

While Steve Smith’s 34th Test hundred and a 156-run seventh wicket partnership with Pat Cummins meant that Australia could recover from 299 for 6 to a first innings’ total of 474, Aussie bowlers made sure that India ended the second day with the hosts in control.

Scott Boland picked up two wickets and has now picked up a total of seven wickets in the series. Coming as a replacement for injured Josh Hazlewood, Boland along with Cummins and Starc have constantly troubled Indian batsmen and Vaughan rated the Australian team’s comeback due to ‘skill’. “Sometimes a team can need a little bit of a prod and a poke and I think the bear was stoked in Perth, and the realisation that Pat and his team were a long way short of probably cricket fitness, longer format game time. I wouldn’t think that you’d want to risk that too often, coming into a series without the amount of cricket to go one-nil down to guarantee that you’ll come back, because you might not come back. But on this occasion, it’s like they’ve come back with a great amount of skill,” added Vaughan.

Former Australia wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist showered praise on Steve Smith for hitting his 34th Test century with a knock of 140 runs in the match. Smith had broken an 18-month century drought with a hundred at Brisbane last week before he scored his fastest Test hundred in nine years at Melbourne. “It was just a masterclass. He seems to have freed himself up and realised that batting is fun again,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.