Ravi Shastri wants India to maintain pressure on under-fire Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook

After England’s 5-0 whitewash in Australia last season and a 1-0 loss to the visiting Sri Lankan side this June, skipper Alastair Cook is being targetted from all quarters for his defensive strategies deployed in defeats. With many former players and commentators calling for his head claiming lack of aggression as the prime factor for the successive series losses, Ravi Shastri wants the young Indian side that is raring to enter the field against the home team not to give the left-hander any breathing space.

Calling Cook as “not a natural captain,” the former Indian international who was part of the victorious Indian Test side that won in England 2-0, recalled the identical situation the then England captain David Gower was facing when Kapil Dev’s men toured the country.

"With David Gower, all we said was don't let him get runs in the first Test and let the pressure build. He lost the captaincy, India won the series," mentioned the cricketer-turned-commentator who picked up 5 wickets and scored 74 runs in the three-match series.

The right-handed batsmen who bowled left-arm spin also pointed out that every good player might not be a good captain, taking the case of Sachin Tendulkar as reference.

"Cook is mentally very tough. He'll break all records for England. The question is do you want a captain in Cook who is not playing freely or do you want Cook playing freely as a batsman? That is what happened to Sachin Tendulkar. As the captain he felt the pressure was getting to his batting and it was taken away," stated Shastri.

"If you have the leader under pressure always go for him. You need to get stuck in. You have to make the game as tough as you can. As an India player they will want this debate to continue," said Shastri, at the series launch.

Cook averages 55.26 against India, nearly 10 runs more than his career average of 45.90. The opener scored 348 runs the last time India played a Test series in England in 2011, also registering his career-best 294 as a specialist batsmen under Andrew Strauss.

India play England at Trent Bridge for the first of the 5-match series on July 9.