COOK HAPPY WITH PERFORMANCE

The captain of the England test and ODI team, Alastair Cook, has said that he is happy with the way his team played in the second innings, but, he is really disappointed with the shot selection of quite a few batsmen in the first innings.

Cook was talking to Ravi Shastri in the post match presentation ceremony and when he was asked about his thoughts on his team’s performance, Cook said, “It’s obviously disappointing to lose, but, the efforts of a few players in the second half of the match was appreciable. It was nice to see the debutant Compton showing determination. Matt Prior was superb again. He is really a great no. 7 to have in your team. He can bat either way. He can up the ante and he can also play steadily.”

“As far as the bowling is concerned, I think Swann was fantastic in the first innings He got the ball to turn a great deal and barring Pujara, none of the Indian batsmen played him with conviction and that’s a great achievement for a spin bowler because the Indian batsmen are supposed to be very good in facing the spinners.”

When asked whether he missed the second spinner, Cook said, “We already had a couple of spinners in the XI. Samit is an all rounder and he was the second spinner for us. I wouldn’t say that I made a mistake by not including Monty in the XI. These three quicks have done wonderfully well for us in the past and that’s why we decided to stick with them.”

“I think the pitch probably got a bit slower in the second innings which helped us. There was turn for sure, but, it was slow turn which was allowing the batsmen to play off the back foot.”