COOK MAY MISS KEY TEST FOR BIRTH
ALASTAIR COOK could miss the fourth Test against India in Southampton next week to attend the birth of his third child. His wife Alice is due to go into labour some time around the start of the match on August 30. But England hope the timing of the birth will allow Cook (left) to take his place in what is shaping up to be a crucial game, after India set England a huge 521 to win the Third test yesterday. Cook joined the 2016-17 tour of Bangladesh late so he could be at the birth of his second daughter, Isobel. The couple’s first child, Elsie, was born in 2014. If he misses the fourth Test, it will bring to an end his world-record sequence of 157 Test appearances. With Surrey’s Rory Burns the likely replacement, it would leave England with a green batting order. To complicate matters, Jonny Bairstow also fractured a finger yesterday.
WhenVir at Kohli arrived in england, people were describing this tour as the final frontier. Could he score runs here against the swinging and seaming ball?
After his performance at Trent Bridge, he has well and truly put that debate to bed.
What has made his runs here and in the first Test at edgbaston so impressive — and he made exactly 200 in each game — has been the conditions.
Most of us thought it would be a dry summer, but the ball has moved around. Kohli has shown the class to deal with it.
One of the things he’s done especially well is choose his targets. he’s sat on Jimmy Anderson, who was all over him in 2014, throughout the series and attacked the others. I saw Brian Lara do it against us twice in Antigua — it’s what great players do.
he’s got more across his stumps and further down the crease to meet the ball. And his battle with Anderson has been one of the highlights of the series.
Yes, Anderson has been unlucky. he had him dropped on 21 at edgbaston by Dawid Malan, and again on 93 in the second innings here by Keaton Jennings.
But that doesn’t take away from the skill Kohli has shown. I also enjoy the fact that, while he is an incredibly intense cricketer, he has an on- off button, even out in the middle. You see him between overs chatting to the umpires, or with Ben Stokes or Anderson, and it’s obvious that he knows when to tune in and out.
For someone like Kohli, who must feel under pressure all the time — whether he’s on or off the field — that’s a vital skill. he does it magnificently. even after a perfect forward defensive, you see him rehearse the stroke again. And you see the fire in his eyes to drive himself on.
his conversion rate is quite remarkable: he’s now turned 23 of his 41 Test scores above 50 into hundreds. That in itself is a lesson for Joe Root. But I also hope Root has learned something from watching him bat, because you’d never know if Kohli was on 27 or 87.
he has the same intensity, tempo, body language and shot selection, and he plays everything on merit.
having said that, in this game he did look a bit nervy in the 90s. In the first innings he went after Adil Rashid when he didn’t have to, and in the second he survived that chance to Jennings.
Whatever he says, I’m sure it’s to do with getting that monkey off his back about his record in england.
If Kohli was the headline act, I was also mightily impressed with Cheteshwar Pujara, who brought an old-fashioned air to proceedings during his innings of 72. It took him 208 balls, but it was a nice antidote to some of england’s slapdash batting on Sunday afternoon.
As soon as I realised India had left Pujara out of the first Test at edgbaston, I thought they had made a mistake. At his best, Pujara brings a stability to this India line-up. he averages almost 50, after all. Perhaps at times he seems a bit too oldfashioned for his own good. When Kohli looks around at some of the brash young cricketers who are emerging in his team — the likes of hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant — then Pujara seems like a throwback.
he’s not a great mover between the wickets or in the field, he’s not in-your-face but quiet and pleasant. Dropping him is the easy option. But I’d want him in my side every time.
he’s just the kind of over-mydead-body batsman that england could do with right now — a Jonathan Trott figure, or Alastair Cook in his prime. Root is wonderfully flamboyant and one of england’s greats. But england lack someone who can do what Pujara did here.
And I don’t believe it’s old-fashioned to argue his kind of player is still appreciated by Test crowds.
They want to see players who are prepared to adapt to conditions and guts it out, as well as the guys who can clear the ropes. There’s room for Pujara in today’s game and India are lucky to have him.