"I’ve got no clue what England were doing with the bat" - Michael Vaughan on Pope and co's bizarre second innings display in 3rd ENG vs SL 2024 Test 

Michael Vaughan failed to understand England's approach in the second innings of the third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval. After attaining a crucial 62-run lead, the hosts squandered the advantage by bundling out for a paltry 156 on Day 3 of the series finale.

Ollie Pope could not replicate his first-innings heroics while the rest of the batting unit also crumbled against the Sri Lanka pace attack. Barring Dan Lawrence and Jamie Smith's attacking display, no other English batter crossed the 20-run mark as their entire innings only lasted 34 overs. England collapsed from 56-2 to 84-7, in the space of 12 overs, from which they could never recover.

Sri Lanka are on the cusp of avoiding a whitewash, and securing their first Test win on English soil since 2014. The visitors have raced off to 94-1 to conclude Day 3 in pursuit of their 219-run target.

Michael Vaughan expressed his confusion over England's approach and questioned Dan Lawrence's aggressive knock.

“I’ve got no clue what England were doing with the bat - Dan Lawrence, I suppose it was his last chance saloon, maybe he was told to go out and swing. It was too expansive," Vaughan said on BBC's Test Match Special.

England's collapse against Australia during the second Test at Lord's in the 2023 Ashes also evoked a similar reaction from fans and pundits, particularly from a shot selection and approach point of view.

On that occasion, they slumped from 208-2 to 325 all out to hand Australia a precious lead out of nowhere, and lost the contest by 43 runs in the end.

"We’re not always going to get it right and today was one of those days we didn’t get it right" - Paul Collingwood on England's collapse

England assistant coach Paul Collingwood admitted that the batting unit was well off the mark during the second innings.

“It certainly hasn’t been one of our better days of Test cricket this year. We’ll always try to knock bowlers off their lengths and find a positive way to apply pressure on the opposition, and sometimes it doesn’t work. It’s Test cricket, you’ve got good players out there and they find ways to put you under pressure. We’re not always going to get it right and today was one of those days we didn’t get it right," Collingwood said at the end of the day's play at The Oval.

The hosts have a mammoth task to claim an unlikely victory. The onus will be on the pace quartet to make early breakthroughs, with the weather conditions expected to aid their cause.