'I ain't soft', says Vaughan

Michael Vaughan has insisted that he has enough steel to be a successful England captain after Ray Illingworth accused him of "captaincy by committee" during the team's crushing innings defeat against South Africa at Lord's.

Vaughan told reporters, "I ain't soft. I can't be soft, I play international cricket and I've scored quite a few runs against good teams." The Lord's match was Vaughan's first Test as captain, and he found his relaxed style of leadership, much praised during England's victorious one-day series, under scrutiny. The heavy defeat prompted Illingworth, who led England to an Ashes victory in Australia in 1970-71, to question Vaughan's leadership skills. But Vaughan replied: "I'll do the job my way. I'm a relaxed player and I believe people play better when they are relaxed."

He also insisted he had no problem captaining Nasser Hussain. "Lord's was difficult for everyone. He [Hussain] didn't get many runs, he dropped an easy catch. Anyone would be down in the dumps. But he gave a couple of rollickings to some of the lads in the field during practice and that's the Nasser Hussain I want in the England team. He's a hell of a role model when he's playing well."

Vaughan was positive that England could turn the series around: "We're only 1-0 down with three to play. Here and Headingley [the venue for the fourth Test] are result wickets." And to prove that the deficit was not insurmountable, he cited England's series win against South Africa in 1998 when they came back to win 2-1 after being 1-0 down.

On the final XI to start tomorrow, he confirmed that Ed Smith would make his debut in place of Anthony McGrath and that Gareth Batty had been released from the squad. But he was more cagey about his seam-bowling line-up, revealing that only Andrew Flintoff was guaranteed a place. That leaves James Kirtley and Glen Chapple competing alongside James Anderson and Stephen Harmison for the final spots in a four-man pace attack.