“England haven’t had many bad days this summer. I still expect them to get over the line,” added Vaughan, who captained England in 51 of his 82 Tests.
“England delight me a lot in the way they play. I like that they do things completely differently. But I sometimes watch and think ‘be careful because this game has a way of biting you’.
“Don’t think you can do things no other player has done in the history of the game – dance down the wicket and whack an away-swinger over mid-off.
“Don’t take the mickey out of the game. Be very, very careful. There are cricketing gods up there and in a year’s time there are tougher challenges.
“I would ask England ‘were you on it all day like you would be against India and Australia?’ If they look themselves in the mirror and say they were, I would say they are lying. They weren’t on it today.”
Harry Brook’s approach for his 19 was symptomatic of England’s wasteful morning.
Brook was dropped on 12, then appeared to mock Sri Lanka’s plan of bowling wide of off stump before he drilled a catch to cover.
And ex-England captain Sir Alastair Cook said Brook was an example of the hosts’ “complacent” approach.
“Sri Lanka bowled in the channel outside off stump and he didn’t like it,” said Cook, the last England captain to win an Ashes series.
“He was moaning to the umpire in jest that it was a bit boring and pretended to bat on sixth stump. An over later he slapped one straight to cover.
“Rather than finding a method, he was more about trying to talk about it than deal with the situation.
“There was an element of carelessness from England today. They could have been so far ahead there was no way Sri Lanka could have come back. I still think they will win this Test, but they have given Sri Lanka a sniff.”
Olly Stone took two wickets and ran out Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne with a direct hit.
The fast bowler denied complacency played a part in England’s performance.
“We’ve always said about taking the positive option,” said Stone. “On another day it goes another way and we get a few more runs on the board.
“The way the pitch was, we felt that was quite a lot on there. It nipped around and they have played well and got a decent score.”