Former England captain Michael Vaughan has entered the ongoing war of words between India head coach Gautam Gambhir and Australian legend Ricky Ponting, adding his voice to the fiery build-up to the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

The verbal clash between the two cricket greats was sparked by discussions about Virat Kohli's recent Test form.

The tension began when Ponting remarked that Kohli, despite his stature, has only managed two Test centuries in the last five years. Gambhir, however, did not take these comments lightly. When asked about Ponting's remarks and whether Kohli's form was a cause for concern, Gambhir responded fiercely, stating that the former Australia captain should focus on his own country's cricket rather than commenting on India's team.

Ponting doubled down on his critique of Kohli's form and even took a jab at Gambhir for India's humiliating Test series loss to New Zealand at home.

Now, Michael Vaughan has entered the fray, offering his thoughts on the Club Prairie Fire podcast, where he was joined by Australia greats Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist. Vaughan expressed his admiration for Gambhir's fiery coaching style, but also advised the India head coach to handle such criticism more diplomatically

"I am going to like Gautam Gambhir as a coach because he is spicy. I think he is going to have to learn that sometimes, in the leadership position that he is in, play the game a little bit," Vaughan said. He added, "Don't just buy every comment. Because, by the way, we are all going to be commenting about his team very shortly."

Vaughan further mentioned that punditry should not be limited to only the teams someone played for. "I never thought that the rule of punditry is that you can only have a comment on the team that you played for. If that is the rule of punditry, well, Haydos, you have spent half your life in India, so that's your job," Vaughan joked.

Vaughan concluded by noting that India's path in the Border-Gavaskar series won't be smooth, and it will be interesting to see how Gambhir handles challenges if his team struggles. "I like the fact that he is going to be very prickly. Over the course of the next few weeks, I don't think it's going to be easy for his team. I don't think they are going to win every game, they are going to lose games, and it will be very interesting to see how he deals with that negative side of team performance.”