Sir Alastair Cook was quite disappointed with the batting performance of England in the final 5th Test match. The visitors haven’t been able to dictate the terms in the series as they are on the verge of yet another defeat in the Test series. The Ben Stokes’ side was bundled out for 218 runs on Day 1 where the track wasn’t that tough for the batters & once again the middle order couldn’t make an impact.
Cricket Expert Steve Harmison had stated earlier that ECB should have sent the team to Abu Dhabi earlier for the preparatory camp. We should not forget that England haven’t won Test series in India since 2012 as the last two previous Test series were forgettable for the Britishers.
It’s the same thing in the whole series- Sir Alastair Cook fumed up after England’s below par performance
Sir Alastair Cook was having an interaction with TNT Sports and stated that England haven’t capitalized on the starts due to which the side hasn’t put up a fight. The former skipper pointed out that the surface is quite a rank turner and was quite shocked to hear from sources with knowledge that the wicket will assist the pacers.
“It’s the same thing in the whole series: England had a real bad 45 minutes. They did in the last Test match, they’ve done in this Test as well. Now, it’s an uphill battle to get back in the game. All the buildup to this wicket had been, ‘It’s all about the seam’…’There’s going to be swing movement’. Actually, England would’ve felt like they had done the hard work,” said Alastair Cook.
“Whether they mentally relaxed a bit, thinking, ‘Well, we’ve got through Bumrah and the swinging bowl. It’s not going to spin.’ And it didn’t actually spin that much in the start. The wicket has definitely spun more than everyone was actually telling us back here and the players did,” he added.
What’s wrong with England
It won’t be wrong to say that England’s national cricket team went overboard after winning the opening Test match which was quite a thriller. The sudden injury to the left arm-off spinner Jack Leach was a massive blow to the team as the other 3 spinners: Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley & Shoaib Bashir were quite inexperienced.
The ‘Bazball’ wasn’t successful in India as the batters require mental strength and need to grind the opposition before playing fearless brand of cricket. Perhaps, the visitors missed the trick by not naming Chris Woakes in the squad as Woakes is someone who can reverse the ball and create an impact with the bat as well.