England Batting-Unit Will Struggle Against Indian Bowlers: Alastair Cook
Published - 01 Jul 2021, 08:07 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:48 AM
Former England captain and legendary opener Alastair Cook has reckoned that the Joe Root-led English batting unit will struggle against a quality Indian bowling attack in the upcoming five-match series.
England’s batting has been a major cause of concern in the past 6-8 months and Cook believes that they will be up against a humongous challenge against India.
Cook added that England batting-unit often struggles under pressure and, according to him, the major reason for that is a number of batters in their line-up are inexperienced.
‘’When the pressure comes on, this England batting unit doesn’t respond too well, they often collapse, when the game’s right on the money or when it becomes tough. It would be interesting to see how they cope with India. It will be a great challenge for them.” said Alastair Cook on the ‘Vaughan and Tuffers show’
‘’We’ve also got to look at how many games these guys have played. (Dom) Sibley 20, (Rory) Burns 25, (Zak) Crawley 14, (Ollie) Pope 19. So four out of the top five, take Joe Root out of it, have played less than 25 games. In a really seasoned Test side, you only want one player with under 20 games. You want everyone else with 50-60 Tests.
Alastair Cook went on to give the example of the last England team that won in Australia in the summer of 2010/11 where almost every batter in their line-up including him had at least 50 Tests under their belt
The legendary England opener added that the likes of him and others have all gone through what the likes of Sibley, Burns, Crawley are going through currently.
‘’The England side which went to Australia in 2010-11 – myself, (Andrew) Struass, (Jonathan) Trott at three, KP (Kevin Pietersen) at four, (Ian) Bell at five, (Paul) Collingwood at six – we had all played 50-60 Test matches. We had all gone through what Sibley, Burns and Crawley are going through at this particular time.” added Alastair Cook.
Former England left-arm spinner Phil Tufnell also echoed Cook’s words, stating the Joe Rot-led batting unit will get blown away by a strong Indian bowling unit.
”We were talking about Joe Root, in the 50-over game, being a situation player. I didn’t see any of that against New Zealand in those two Test matches. I still think there is a huge worry about the top three. Rory Burns in probably pretty much pinned in. But there are two or three spots lurking around. Ollie Pope short of runs, the likes of James Bracey came in, he was nervous. That batting order against that Indian bowling line-up will struggle, and they will need to do something about it because we could get blown away.” he said.
Also Read- England Will Field Their Best Possible Playing 11 Against India: Joe Root
