Alastair Cook has said Rohit Sharma, the India captain, appeared to have no idea how to counteract England’s positive play during the first Test. As a result, Cook believes, the players “didn’t really know where to turn or who to look at” and were “all at sea” as they fell to a stunning 28-run defeat.
Cook, speaking before his role fronting TNT Sports’ cricket coverage, captained England in 59 Tests – only Joe Root has played more Tests as captain – including during their series win in India, the last by any touring side, in 2012. “It was probably one of the greatest away wins, or wins anywhere considering where they found themselves at the end of day two,” he said of England’s performance in the opening Test.
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“They found themselves with a free shot at the end of day two, where they were in a position where you don’t win too many games of cricket. It almost freed them up and allowed them to play.
“I said before the series it would be very interesting to see how India cope with the willingness to attack spin that the England batsmen will show. We knew it was going to happen and it is confrontational as a captain because there’s not much you can do.
“Halfway through day three they weren’t sure where to turn or what to do. That’s what it [England’s Bazball approach] can do. What we saw – and whether that was because Virat Kohli wasn’t there – with a bit of inexperience in their middle-order and in the field, they didn’t really know where to turn to or who to look at. Either for how do we chase in that fourth innings or how are we going to stop this England onslaught. They did look a little bit all at sea.”
Cook said Sharma had been particularly slow to counteract England’s tactics, particularly as Ollie Pope scored his epic 196 on the third and fourth days. “They’re so used to winning games, they [thought], ‘This won’t happen for much longer.’ When Ollie Pope kept playing the reverse sweep, Rohit didn’t change the field for a while because he thought, well, stats say that if you play a high-risk shot against world-class bowling, the odds are stacked in [the bowlers’] favour.
“But the English batsmen continued executing the shots really well, then they had to blink. By the time they blinked, they’d missed the [boat],” Cook said. “It’s going to be intriguing to see what India do. Whether England have forced their hand and they become more defensive in their field placings, and therefore the traditional way of getting out to spin – caught bat-pad, caught silly point, playing defensively – England might have taken that away because they might have less men around the bat.”
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England’s highest wicket-takers in 2012 were the spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, who went into the series with 46 and 42 Test caps respectively. With the exception of Jack Leach, who has been ruled out of the second Test, England’s specialist spinners on this tour have much less experience: Tom Hartley made his debut in Hyderabad, Rehan Ahmed has two Test caps and Shoaib Hashir none.
“Monty and Swanny were outstanding that series, they outbowled the Indian spinners by quite a long way,” Cook said. “It was quite easy to captain – you just throw the ball to them.”
Cook admitted he would probably have taken Hartley out of the attack when India were scoring freely against him on the first day, but was impressed by the 24-year-old’s strength of character as he battled back to take seven wickets in the second innings. “You don’t know what would have happened either way. What we do know is that Hartley’s got something about him to be able to bowl in the second innings under pressure. I don’t think that’s just down to Stokesy’s captaincy, that’s down to Hartley and his mental stamina and stomach for the fight.”
“A lot of credit has to be given to him for mentally being able to handle the onslaught and then coming out to deliver the goods. England might have found a cricketer who is good under pressure and that’s ultimately what Test cricket is about.”
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