Ashes 2023: "I've Never Seen Australia With Four Men On The Boundary" - Sir Alastair Cook On Pat Cummins’s Defensive Tactics

Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook opened up on Australia’s defensive tactics on the opening day of the first Test at the Edgbaston in Birmingham on Friday, June 16. Alastair Cook said that Australia fielded with a defensive approach from the start, which is unlike their traditional approach.

England won the toss and opted to bat first in the Ashes 2023 opener. The Ben Stokes-led team put up a total of 393 runs for the loss of eight wickets in just 78 overs before declaring their first innings. The Pat Cummins-led team ended the day’s play without losing a wicket and scored 14 runs in 4 overs.

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Speaking to BBC Test Match Special after Day 1, Alastair Cook said that he had never seen the Australian team field more players at the boundary line right from the start.

“It feels a bit un-Australian. They normally fight fire with fire,’. I’ve never seen Australia with four men on the boundary,” Alastair Cook said on BBC Test Match Special.

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England opener Zak Crawley started the innings with a boundary on the first ball. Crawley played a lavish drive-through offside in Pat Cummins’s bowling. The Australian team opened their field after only a couple of overs.

English batters made most of the open field and rotated the strike well. They minimized the dot balls by running hard between the wickets. They recorded the lowest dot ball percentage across the first 25 overs of a Test.

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It Is Fantastic To See Australia So Defensive – Kevin Pietersen

Former England player Kevin Pietersen criticized Pat Cummins’ tactics in the first Test match, stating that Australia’s defensive approach is fantastic from an England perspective.

“They have got it wrong, but from an England perspective, it is fantastic to see Australia so defensive,” Kevin Pietersen said on air.

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“I just think first morning of an Ashes series, I would have thought that Pat Cummins would have said, ‘OK England, give it a go. We don’t mind. Hit us for six fours … a couple of sixes, no problem. Then we will go to plan B. I think that they went straight to plan-B,” he added.

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