Edgy Cook not looking in the pink
ALASTAIR COOK was left red-faced after he flunked his first audition with the pink Kookaburra ball on the first day of England’s second warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI.
The former England captain, his country’s record Test run-scorer and century-maker, is likely to be key when the Ashes start in Brisbane two weeks today.
But Cook failed for the second successive innings on this tour, scoring just 15 to follow up his second-ball duck in the opening warm-up game against a Western Australia XI in Perth last weekend.
This four-day contest is the tourists’ only chance to experience the pink Kookaburra ball before they face Australia in the first-ever day-night Ashes Test at the same venue next month.
England used the much different Dukes ball in their only previous day-night Test against West Indies at Edgbaston back in August, which they won at a canter.
So, while half-centuries for opener Mark Stoneman, captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan were encouraging, the late collapse that saw England lose three wickets for eight runs against the second new ball under lights was less so.
Add in the fact that Root’s men also wobbled against rookie leg-spinner Dan Fallins, the 21-year-old picking up four wickets on his first-class debut, then this was hardly the ideal day for the tourists.
With time running out before the first Test in Brisbane, the form of Cook, who has now scored just 76 runs in his last six innings, will be the major worry for England.
But Stoneman, who followed up his 86 in Perth with an innings of 61 here, played down fears over his opening partner, who edged seamer Jackson Coleman behind in the seventh over of the day.
“The way things are going he’s getting a couple of decent balls early on,” said Stoneman. “That’s the nature of opening the batting. The longer he can spend in the middle the happier he will be.”
Stoneman, who made his Test debut in the three-match series against West Indies at the end of the summer, is at least showing some decent form.
Like Stoneman, Root was out to a loose shot to Fallins, who also dismissed James Vince and Jonny Bairstow.
Malan, who before this trip had never even been to Australia let alone played cricket here, is also settling into the tour nicely, the Middlesex batsman cementing his place at No 5 in England’s order with 63 after his 56 in Perth.
There will be concerns, though, about the weakness of the opposition attack and the sluggish nature of the pitch, which is hardly the best preparation for facing an Australian pace battery in the Ashes led by Mitchell
Starc.