Sport News 24/7Fletcher confident of Vaughan revival
England Cricket
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02 April 2007 /
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England coach Duncan Fletcher is confident skipper Michael Vaughan will eventually find his touch at the World Cup.
The 32-year-old returned to England's one-day side in the Commonwealth Bank series Down Under after more than a year out of the game with a knee injury but was forced to watch from the sidelines once more after picking up a hamstring strain.
The Yorkshireman returned once again to lead England in their group games in the Caribbean and looked good in the first couple of matches but failed to go on and get a really big score to boost his confidence ahead of the Super 8 clashes.
The right-hander has missed out in England's last two matches, with Vaughan again mystifying pundits who cannot believe that such a talented cricketer has yet to score a one-day century in 81 matches and owns an average of just 27.22 in the shortened version of the game.
The 2005 Ashes-winning captain will be in charge of affairs when England take on Sri Lanka in their second Super 8 clash on Wednesday and Fletcher feels sure that Vaughan will recapture the form that made him one of the most respected batsmen in world cricket before long-term injury struck.
"He was batting very well at the beginning of this tournament," he said. "He was batting well in the nets and in the middle. He put in some good performances, but he realises he should have gone on from there.
"He has been getting 30s and 40s but he has to do more than that. Over the last few days he's lost a bit of form, but I'm sure it will come back pretty soon.
"We'll work on certain areas but sometimes it can be a mental thing rather than something technical, and we'll discuss it."
Betfair punters do not fancy a Vaughan revival to lift him to the top of the England runscoring charts, and the skipper is trading at 8.6 to be top England batsman at the tournament, with the ever-reliable Paul Collingwood on offer as the 2.1 favourite.
Kevin Pietersen trades at 2.18 while Andrew Flintoff is on offer at 4.5 and Ed Joyce is available at 8.2.
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