“I hope he can continue for a few years yet”. Ali was treated slightly better but suffered for Cook’s stubborn streak.
Advertisement
As for Cook, Bayliss knows from the evidence of the past 10 years he can simply anticipate more of the same.
Batsmen (top 10) include Steve Smith (Australia 1st) Joe Root (England 2nd) Kane Williamson (New Zealand 3rd) Hashim Amla (South Africa 4th) Younus Khan (Pakistan 5th) AB de Villiers (South Africa 6th) Adam Voges (Australia 7th) David Warner (Australia 8th) Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka 9th) and Misbah ul Haq (Pakistan 10th).
“It’d be a concern for him that he’s not scoring as many runs as he would like”, Bayliss acknowledged. “Whenever anyone’s a little out of form there’s always that little bit of a worry I suppose”.
“Next week’s Test is on his home ground”.
The man he replaced as England’s leading run-scorer, fellow opener Graham Gooch, played his final worldwide at the age of 41 and a look through Test cricket’s leading run-scorers suggests Cook has every chance of still being active at the highest level in six and a half years. He took over the captaincy of the team from Andrew Strauss in late 2012. Cook fell three runs short of half century, but the day belonged to him and his England team as they clinched the Test series with a game to spare.
Of the players he name-checked (Robson’s name was put to him rather than volunteered), Borthwick is the only one batting at No.3 in Championship Division One. The 31-year-old Essex batsman, who struck a boundary to join an 11-strong group of players to achieve the feat, said: “I don’t think it whistled, I think it trickled over!” “Cooky as well – he plays with Westley, for example”.
“Statistically, he’s now one of the greatest batsmen English cricket has ever had, if not the greatest”.
As an opener, Cook knows all about the need for mental resilience and he was proud to see England show similar traits.
“When I was 20 odd not out I saw Elsie running around with Layton Stokes – and then you realise how special it all is”, he said. “That’s a possibility”, said Bayliss.
“You can bowl 200mph, you can swing it around trees, you can seam it around anything but if it’s not starting and ending in the right place it doesn’t make sense”.
Advertisement
England named the same squad of 12 for the third Test which starts on Thursday week.
