India vs England 2021: Alastair Cook Takes A Dig At Virat Kohli After The Indian Captain Termed The Pitch As 'Very Good'

Former England captain, Alastair Cook hits out at Virat Kohli as the Indian captain defended the pitch at Motera terming it a ‘very good to bat on’ after India’s 10-wicket triumph over the visitors.

The day-night contest ended in a little over 5 sessions and was the shortest Test, in terms of balls, since 1935. The pitch was once again, after the second Chennai Test, a talking point, especially being criticized plenty by former English players – England hasn’t gone past 200 in their last 5 innings.

But Virat Kohli was not shying away from airing his views loud and clear as after the match on Thursday, the skipper said that there was not much trouble from the track – instead, it were the batters from both sides who batted poorly.

“[It was] a very good pitch to bat on – especially in the first innings – and it felt like the ball was coming on nicely with the odd-ball turning. It was just, I would say, below-par batting from both teams. Our bowlers were much more effective and that’s why we got the result,” Virat Kohli said at the post-match ceremony.

Virat Kohli’s come out and defended the wicket almost as if it’s a BCCI thing: Alastair Cook

However, Alastair Cook does not concur with Kohli’s statement – Cook believes Kohli’s comments and defence of the pitch was a corporate style statement, and might as well have come from the BCCI.

Cook, who led England to a series victory in India in 2012, points out that while most of the wickets for the spinner came from the straighter balls, it was the deliveries previous, which turned square, that set up the batsman, and that was attributed to the spin-friendly nature of the surface.

“Virat Kohli’s come out and defended the wicket almost as if it’s a BCCI thing, it cannot possibly be the wicket. Yet it was so hard to bat on that today. So hard,” said Alastair Cook while speaking with Channel 4.

“There’s been so many other balls that have gone straight on as well. So that means when it is turning, it is turning miles. When you see the highlights and the ball skidding on you, we don’t see the build-up: when the exact same ball is spinning miles,” the 36-year-old former skipper added.

Also Read: Batsmen Who Can Score Runs On These Pitches, Are The Real Batsmen: Sunil Gavaskar On Tackling Spin-Bowling