Cook is unconcerned about the timing of England’s ascent, which could come quickly if they follow up Sunday’s victory over Pakistan at Edgbaston with another at The Oval.
Advertisement
Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur seems optimistic and committed for Pakistan’s win this time and has advised the team to be cautious of English players Alastair Cook and Joe Root.
If they don’t win in Colombo and India can not beat the West Indies by more than 2-0 in the Caribbean, a draw would be enough for England at the Kia Oval.
Cook is not about to get too worked up about that prospect just yet, though.
“If we do win at The Oval, I wouldn’t say we are anywhere near our potential”.
It lead Misbah to suggest, with tongue in cheek, that Pakistan might have to think about sending their young bowlers to England to learn how to master the art of reverse swinging the ball; an irony considering it was Pakistan bowlers who perfected the art and England, for many years, were tortured by it.
England: A 3-1 series win against Pakistan will give them the No. 1 ranking provided India don’t win by a margin of 3-0 against West Indies.
Sri Lanka’s 2-0 lead over Australia in the three-Test series has thrown up a number of permutations.
He said: “It think we are still a little way off”. I think it’s made me the bowler I am, so I don’t want to lose that. “We are all aware of how he’s been out in the last few Test matches [caught driving in the slips] and they bowled wide not just to James but to all of our batters”.
But even if England receive the ceremonial mace, Cook believes there is plenty of room for improvement.
“I’ve thought Rashid’s been a chance for the last two or three Tests”. “If that happens it’s a bit of an irrelevance for me because this side’s still got so much further to go”.
“It does a huge amount for the team, knowing you can be 100 runs behind and come back”, Anderson said.
“It is very tempting to play Adil and we saw previous year at The Oval, the wicket had a bit in it for everyone”.
Conventional or reverse swing where a ball deviates late in flight is one of the most hard types of bowling to face, particularly if the bowler is capable, as Anderson is, of deliveries in excess of 80mph. We could not handle it.
“Until lunch it was easy, nothing happening”.
For now, it is likely England will stick to their current balance of having Moeen as the one spinner for the final Test. Moeen produced his best spell of the summer in the second innings at Edgbaston – sending down 15 overs either side of lunch – and claimed the key wicket of Azhar Ali, which opened the door for England’s push towards victory when the ball started to reverse.
Advertisement
Pakistan failed to capitalize on the opportunity of becoming the top test team in the world following back to back losses at the hands of England at Manchester and Birmingham in the ongoing test match series.
