England suffered a massive defeat by 10 wickets at the hands of Australia in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane. A lot was dependent on the experienced opener and the former captain Alastair Cook but he failed to impress as the left-hander could score just 2 and 7 runs in the first and second innings respectively.
Cook has been the batting mainstay for England for a number of years and in the Ashes, there were massive expectations from him. But the way he got out in both the innings has disappointed the former England’s cricketer Kevin Pietersen who has raised questions about the form and attitude of Alastair Cook.
Pietersen believes that Cook has thrived on technique in the whites but his dismissal in the first innings exposed a mistake. Even in the second innings, he got out caught at fine leg off a short ball while the pull shot has yielded him so many runs in his career.
Cook’s form, a cause for concern
“The first concern would be Alastair Cook and his form, that is certainly a cause of concern. The dismissals of Cook would cause flutters in that dressing room. The manner in which he got out in the first innings is a huge cause for concern. It’s a technique he fights with on a daily basis. Then Alastair’s strong shot has been the pull, he’s a magnificent player of the pull shot and scored so many runs with it,” Pietersen said in a conversation with BT Sport.
“To get out that way [in the second innings]…for me it’s the bigger picture. The way he walks off the field, the way he walks to training, I don’t see a bounce in his step. I just don’t see it,” he added.
“‘When he walked off the field after his dismissal he was very relaxed about it, it wasn’t an assertive, caring, “why did I get out” scenario. That’s probably the biggest concern, it’s that care, he’s played almost 150 Test matches and it’s quite difficult to get up every single day for Test cricket,” KP concluded.
