Skipper Alastair Cook admits England blundered with some of the tactics employed in what has been a disastrous Test series against India, but insists there was no lack of effort from his team
England captain Alastair Cook (2nd from right) watches teammate Joe Root (right) miss a catch during practice at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday. Pic/AFP
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Chennai: Beleaguered England captain Alastair Cook conceded that they may have gone wrong with some of the tactics they employed in what has been a disastrous Test series against India but insisted that there was no lack of effort on their part.
Even as Cook struggled with both his batting and captaincy, a dominant India took an unassailable 3-0 lead heading into the fifth and final Test here, with Virat Kohli leading the home team by example, notching up 640 runs scoring one double hundred and two centuries.
“One thing I can’t be criticised for is the togetherness and I have no regrets on the effort we have made. We would rather not be 3-0 down. Decisions, in hindsight, we would have certainly changed. We got some decisions wrong, but what happens, happens. I don’t think anyone can fault us for how hard we fought,” Cook told reporters at the pre-match press conference here yesterday.
Questions have been raised about Cook’s captaincy in the series, with some saying it is time the baton is passed to Joe Root, but he sought to underplay the debate.
“You get judged on your results, don’t you? When you lose games you come under criticism. It happens to everyone, when Virat loses games, he will be criticised. When I lose games, I am criticised. That is part and parcel of it. Even Hartley, the England rugby captain, you win some games in cricket, lose games in rugby, his arm goes flying last week. You get criticised.
“When you are part of the leadership and stuff, you live and die by those decisions. When everything is going well, it looks good, everything is going badly, it looks terrible. You are probably somewhere in the middle most of the time,” the captain said.
Asked about the pitch, he said, “It looks a good wicket. I don’t think anyone knows really how it is going to play. I have never seen a wicket dried with coals before. The groundstaff has done a fantastic job looking at it from where it was a couple of days ago,” added the skipper.
The England skipper also did not read too much into India exacting revenge after defeats in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
“In cricket, everything happens so quickly. 2014 looks a long time ago, 2012 seems long time ago, 2011 seems even further away.”
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