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Test match England V India


ramafan

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Can't really get behind the argument he's not been the same player since getting the captaincy. He made centuries in (I believe) 6 of his first 8 matches as captain, led the team to their first series win in India for many, many years and won an Ashes series 3-0, although it was obviously closer than that score suggests and he personally struggled a bit for runs.

 

The wheels really came off for him in Australia, but he was not helped at all by any of his previously reliable players. Trott deserted the team completely citing a stress-related illness that later turned out not to be, Bell, KP and Prior suffered from similar loss of form as Cook did leaving us with no runs at all in the top or middle order. To compound the problem the bowlers weren't up to the task either and our best spinner in decades was forced to retire through injury.

 

I suppose you could blame Cook for the poor performance in Australia, failing to inspire his team etc etc but you'd be ignoring the fact those same players had won several series' previously (under the same captain) and shouldn't have needed any more inspiration or motivation for an Ashes tour down under.

 

A month later, KP is axed and Cook is forced to take the brunt of the outrage, piling more unfair pressure on him. Then a slightly cautious declaration (probably a decision made by the coach) costs us a win in the first test vs Sri Lanka, we manage to lose the series and here we are now at the India series.

 

Cook is under pressure to score runs and this is compounded by critics in the media, many with an agenda against him (Warne is the main one), unfairly criticising every decision he makes in the field and in fact everything that even happens in the field. The one that really gets me at the moment is blaming him for the tail scoring runs. Sorry but our bowlers must take the majority of the blame if they can't get 9-10-11 out without them putting on 100. But no, every time it's Cook's fault.

 

So yea I guess what I'm saying is, he's on an awful run but I don't think it's particularly due to him being captain. However, it will now be harder for him to get his runs now due to the extra pressure he's under because of the unfair scrutiny and criticism he gets from sections of the media.

 

Really hope he can lead us to victory with a ton in the 2nd knock here, he's comfortably the best England opener I've ever seen and I'd hate for his career to be ruined by our press, helped by an orange, rat faced Aussie.

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Don't get me wrong, I love the grind of traditional test cricket but I also love what Sir Jaddu has done in this innings. India under huge pressure when he arrives, hits a ballsy quick fire half century and starts to take the game away from England.

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