There has been no question about the batting abilities of Alastair Cook ever since his debut in Nagpur a decade ago. He buckled down in the first innings to bat for nearly three and a half hours for a patient 60 and in the second innings, bettered his initial effort to churn out his maiden century – an unbeaten 104 constructed in a shade over six hours.
Immediately, it became clear that this was one player to watch out for in the future.
Cook didn’t disappoint either. He has admirably carried the burden of captaincy since the retirement of Andrew Strauss and at the same time, kept up his reputation as one of the leading batsmen currently playing the game.
After a decade of wonderful performances, the gangly English skipper is now at the stage of his career where he is breaking records and piling up the numbers with every game.
A prolific run-getter
Only earlier this year, he became the first Englishman to reach 10,000 Test runs and in the process also broke Tendulkar’s record to become the youngest to do so. In the current match, he went past 11,000 runs proving that he is the leading contender to also break another of Tendulkar’s records – most Test runs.
This apart, he also has the English record for most Tests played, most centuries, most Test wins, and obviously the most Test runs by an Englishman. Cook’s ownership of all these records is courtesy of his longevity, and his consistency and commitment. But along with the bouquets come the brickbats and at the end of this tour, the southpaw might well be part owner of the ignominious record for having most Test losses as captain for England.
With such great numbers, it is quite obvious that getting the English captain out early is instrumental in putting the English side under pressure right from the outset. That, however, is easier said than done. Whatever weaknesses have emerged in his game over the years, he has sorted out.
Yet, this time around, a new weakness has been exposed in Cook’s batting by the left arm spinner, Ravindra Jadeja. What stood out on his initial tours to the subcontinent was an adeptness at tackling the spinners even on slow and low surfaces. On this trip, it has been an altogether different story.
A testing tour
Up until the current series, Cook possessed an enviable record in India. Strangely, his record in India was much better than what he managed against the same opposition back in England. This series, however, his frailties against left-arm spin have been exposed and his numbers have taken a significant beating.
| Venue | Matches | Innings | Runs | High Score | Average | 100s | 50s |
| England | 12 | 19 | 869 | 294 | 48.27 | 1 | 4 |
| India | 8 | 16 | 866 | 190 | 61.85 | 4 | 3 |
On this tour though, Cook has become Ravindra Jadeja’s bunny. No bowler has ever dismissed him more number of times in a series than the five times that Jadeja has managed so far. Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, Morne Morkel and Umar Gul have all got the opening batsman out four times in a series, but with one more innings to go, Jadeja looks good to add to his tally. Cook’s inability to preserve his wicket as well as his difficulty in scoring runs have vastly affected his numbers.
| Matches | Innings | Runs | High Score | Average | 100s | 50s | |
| In India (2016) | 5 | 9 | 320 | 130 | 35.55 | 1 | 1 |
| In India (Overall) | 13 | 25 | 1186 | 190 | 51.56 | 5 | 4 |
While Cook’s average of 35.55 might not look bad, it has brought down his overall average in India by more than 10 runs. Still, his average looks good because of the 130 and the resolute 54 he scored in an effort to save the game in Visakhapatnam.
Apart from those two innings, the opener averages a meagre 19.4 runs per innings. However, against spinners the numbers look even more skewed, representative of how poorly he has fared.
Battles against Jadeja
While left-handers are generally susceptible to right-handed off-spinners, this time the southpaw has been especially susceptible to the left-handed Jadeja. The mercurial bowler drew first blood, getting Cook leg before wicket on a flat Rajkot wicket.
This was only the second time that Jadeja had got the English captain out in the five Tests that they had both featured in until then. Of course, four of those Tests were on India’s tour of England in 2014 but the fact that Jadeja could make England’s most experienced batsman his bunny was far from expected.
After getting his off-stump destroyed by Mohammed Shami in the first innings at Visakhapatnam, once again the resolute opening bat fell to Jadeja after a typically dour innings. Perhaps two leg before dismissals against the left-arm spinner began to weigh on his mind, and from then on, wicket preservation against his tormentor became a priority.
While the track at Mohali did not offer as much turn as other turning tracks, there was bounce on offer which was exploited well by Ashwin to get the experienced opener out twice.
As the Mumbai Test approached, the English camp must have decided to take the fight to the opposition at a venue where they had won their last match convincingly. Accordingly, captain Cook began on a positive note at the Wankhede after winning the toss.
In his eagerness to dictate terms to his nemesis, the southpaw stepped out enterprisingly but only ended up getting himself so far down the track and so far away from the pitch of the ball that he did not even attempt getting back in his crease. The battle was lost but the war still remained and so, chasing their tails in the second innings, the captain and his deputy looked to get set and stay in for the long haul.
Up against the wall
No repeat of the resolute defence displayed at Visakhapatnam was to be repeated, however, as Jadeja came on to snare his bunny as if on cue. It was once again, leg before wicket. Thrice in four matches, Cook was dismissed leg before wicket to Ravi Jadeja. There needed to be some correction for a batsman of the stature of the English captain. The correction did come in the first innings in Chennai, but it wasn’t enough.
| Matches | Innings | Runs | Balls Faced | Dismissals | Average | Balls/dismissal |
| 5 | 7 | 60 | 165 | 5 | 12.00 | 33.0 |
This time, on a Chepauk wicket that has done very little for the bowlers, an adjustment was made. The pad was taken far outside the line of the ball in order to take the lbw dismissal out of play. The left-handed batsman had won the first round, but the unrelenting Jadeja kept pegging away and another mistake was exposed. In his eagerness to keep one mode of dismissal out of play, Cook brought in another.
Keeping the bat in front of the pad would have served the twin purposes of negating any possibilities of an lbw or an edge. Instead, the bat was kept right beside the pad and thanks to the Indian left armer’s consistent and nagging accuracy, one delivery took the outside edge for Kohli to complete a difficult but wonderful catch.
With one inning left to play, and India having proven equal to the task, the pressure is mounting on the English opener. Having been unable to get out of this rut, the signs do not look good for captain Cook.
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