Former English skipper, Alastair Cook was not happy with the stance of the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli’s stance on the Motera pitch, and said the India skipper “defended the wicket almost as if it’s a BCCI thing”. Disagreeing with Kohli’s assessment of the third Test that ended with India registering a 10-wicket win over England inside two days, Cook said batting was near impossible on the newly laid strip at the refurbished stadium in Ahmedabad.
During a chat on Channel 4, Alastair Cook said, “Virat Kohli’s come out and defended the wicket almost as if it’s a BCCI thing — it cannot possibly be the wicket. Yet it was so hard to bat on that. So hard. Take the wicket out and blame the batsmen?” Cook asked, referring to Kohli’s assessment of the pitch that it’s a “very good pitch to bat on — especially in the first innings”.
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He further added, “To be honest, I don’t think the quality of batting was up to standards. We were 100 for 3 and bowled out for less than 150. It was just that the oddball turning and it was a good wicket to bat in the first innings.”
Only two batsmen — one each from both sides — managed to score a fifty as 28 wickets fell to the spinners on a Motera pitch that many players felt was not ideal for a Test match. The likes of Sunil Gavaskar, however, credited the spinners for taking wickets rather than blaming the pitch.
Cook added, “We’ve got Virat Kohli, Joe Root, we have some great players of spin. To me it’d be great to have that game with the red ball to see the difference when the ball is skidding on. Today trying to play properly, it was nigh-on impossible.”
Cook also spoke about the many deliveries that were skitted through, especially by left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who finished the match with 11 wickets, including six in England’s second innings.
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Describing the same, Alastair Cook said, “We saw a stat that says this pitch has spun more than any other pitch in India. There have been so many other balls that have gone straight on as well. So that means when it is turning, it is turning miles. When you see the highlights and the ball skidding on you, we don’t see the build-up: when the exact same ball is spinning miles.”
