"No way back into the game" - Sir Alastair Cook earmarks Team India as heavy favorites to win IND vs ENG 5th Test
Former England skipper Sir Alastair Cook reckons India have shut the door on the tourists' possibility of coming back in the fifth Test in Dharamsala. The Essex cricketer believes England will experience a slow death over the next couple of days of the Test.
The Englishmen squandered a promising position on Day 1 and collapsed from 175-3 to 218 as left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav wrecked their batting unit. Kuldeep claimed a fifer, while Ravichandran Ashwin took four as the hosts trailed by only 83 with nine wickets in hand by the end of Day 1. Day 2 saw England go wicketless in the opening session.
Speaking on TNT Sports, Cook believes the match drifted away from England on day 1 itself, elaborating:
"It went away from [England] yesterday and this is the icing on the cake for India. This is like 'we are shutting every door and locking it'. There is no way back into the game for England - they are making sure that is the case. In Test cricket, it's a slow death and England are going to experience that over the next couple of days, you feel, unless something strange happens."
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal put England under pressure from the outset, with the latter hitting three sixes at one stage off an over from Shoaib Bashir. However, Bashir got the better of him for 57.
"Tough work for the English bowlers" - Alastair Cook
The 39-year-old lauded Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill for maintaining an excellent tempo in the morning session, adding:
"It's been a brilliant partnership between these two - Gill in particular has been very aggressive this morning. Rohit has just steadied himself to a hundred, he realises you don't get many opportunities to book yourself in for a Test hundred. It's been tough work for the English bowlers."
Ben Stokes and James Anderson removed Rohit and Gill, respectively, immediately after lunch on day 2.