England lost the first Test at Lord’s but bounced back to win back to back games and had a chance to seal the series at The Oval.
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“It’s great we have strength in depth but for the majority of the time they should be putting the icing on the cake and not making the cake”.
“There were no off field issues – we are happy to conclude on a pleasing note, 2-2, everyone enjoyed it, we made friends on and off the field”.
With tours to Bangladesh and India coming up, another major concern for England will be their spin bowling; Moeen Ali is unable to give his captain enough of either a wicket taking threat or adequate control with the ball to keep pressure on sides.
Cook, who is now one test win short of equaling his predecessor Andrew Strauss’s record of 24 and 3 short of England’s national record of 26 wins by Michael Vaughan, spoke on the eve of the fourth and final test of the home series against Pakistan.
Most of all, they were left to ponder the continuing fragility of their top-order batting that saw only two of the top five (predictably, Cook and Joe Root) average 30 and the unreliability of their close catching which, on average missed two chances an innings.
“At the beginning of this game there was talk about we could be No1”, said Cook.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah took five wickets, while senior batsman Younus Khan made his double century to help Pakistan crush England by 10 wickets in the final test to level the series 2-2.
“We can’t afford to drop as many catches as we have in this series if we want to bowl sides out on good wickets like this one here”. As a result, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq was fined 20% of his match fee while his teammates were handed a fine of 10% in accordance with Article 2.5.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Players Support Personnel.
“It’s not ideal”, he said. They will next be seen in action on 18 August, where they play Ireland in the first of a two-match ODI series. I m sure he won t do that again.
After leading his team to victory on Pakistan Independence Day, Misbah, who is 42, refused to confirm whether he would stay as captain but believes Pakistan would be worthy of the No1 tag.
For Pakistan, this series proved to be a case of what might have been.
“Sometimes people think it’s easy, that the UAE suits us and we win”.
“I can only see my mother and sister once a year and some of my friends only once every three or four years, because of these commitments”.
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“Given those circumstances, I am really proud of this team – and it really deserves to be number one”.
