After the 2002/2003 Ashes series, Michael Vaughan was being dubbed as the number one batsman in the world after an Ashes series and a half in which he recorded 3 centuries. Preceding this he had just made stacks of runs against India at home. It was indeed a golden 12 months for him, and his test match average stood above 50. He was ranked number one in the world and every England cricket fan was terribly excited about their new batting superstar.

Two years or so later, and it couldn't be more different. Vaughan’s average has slumped to below 45 and although he has got his test match hundred tally up to a highly respectable 15, his batting has been terribly inconsistent and rather unconvincing most of the time.

The problems started in the 2003 home test series against South Africa. In the first test when England were battling for survival, Vaughan conjured up a magnificent 167 to help England save the match. It was a poor performance from England though on the whole, and Nasser Hussain stood down from captaincy this led Vaughan to take over for the Lords test. This is where the slump to mediocrity began for Vaughan. He recorded scores of 33 and 27 at Lords, and followed that up with 1, 5, 15, 23 and 13 in the next 3 tests. Tentative footwork was his main downfall, as he repeatedly prodded forward resulting in mainly snicks off the edge to the keeper and slips. The captaincy was looking to be having a negative effect on his batting.

It didn't get much better for Vaughan as he returned average performances in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and then the West Indies. Although he did make up for that with a gritty 100 in Sri Lanka and a good 140 on an absolute featherbed pitch in Antigua, the scene of Brian Lara’s 400*.

Snicks behind were now a trademark for Vaughan, his tentative unconvincing footwork resulting in low/average score after low/average score with the odd glimpse of the Vaughan of old in between. Two hundreds in a match against the West Indies at Lords couldn't even reignite the flame. A struggle in South Africa followed, Pollock and Ntini especially ruthlessly exploiting Vaughan’s poor footwork and condemning him to yet another average test series bar two fifties in Johannesburg.

Serious questions were now being asked about Vaughan's batting, particularly because of a continually mediocre ODI career in which he has still yet to make a hundred and his average languishes below 30. Worse was yet to follow. Another technical flaw crept into Vaughan’s game. This flaw saw him getting stuck on the crease and bringing the bat down facing the mid on region rather than straight, thus resulting in innocuous looking straight balls sending his off stump flying out of the ground.

There was another glimpse of the Vaughan of old in the Old Trafford test match, where he was dropped once and bowled off a no ball along the way to a sublime 166. I have my doubts though that he will ever be consistent. Technically he doesn’t appear good enough, and unless he sorts out his tendency to get stuck on the crease early in his innings I don't think England fans will ever be treated to consistent performances from Vaughan. Indeed, in four innings since that 166 he has scored a total of 83 runs.

I am afraid to say that international bowlers have latched onto Vaughan’s weaknesses and it has been an unhappy slump to mediocrity since. Has captaincy had an effect? Statistics may suggest that, but my opinion is that it’s just an excuse. In fact, some batsmen thrive under captaincy.

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- Rob