I had been under the impression that strauss and cook hadnt done that well opening together (especially in australia but then that is a bit of a harsh test) but looking back at the india series last year they seemed to do ok in that one (especially bearing in mind that strauss didnt make that many runs). I suppose that vaughan opening gives england a right-left combination that could upset the bowler's line a bit more. Vaughan is more likely to take the attack to the opposition than either cook or strauss. Also as vaughan and cook made century opening partnerships in both innings in the second test v sri lanka i think that it is a bit harsh to call it stupid Debatable perhaps but i think it can be justified. The problem really is where then to play strauss if you have him in the team. He isnt a number 3 IMO. As you say, the net effect of the change seems to be decrease the runs that vaughan scores so maybe a strauss/cook opening partnership would be better.I wouldn't imagine Strauss and Vaughan are going to be re-reversed any time soon. If they were going to take a stupid decision like batting Strauss three, they'd be unlikely to put it back to "as expected".
Hope I'll be surprised tho. Strauss at three is probably even more useless than Strauss opening. More worryingly, Vaughan opening is considerably less than Vaughan at three.
Gillespie on. Hattrick averted.