Young Tom left in awe of Cook’s masterclass
Richard Latham finds Essex star Tom Westley in defiant mood, while the ‘Chef’ is back cooking in the kitchen
Tom Westley is predicting no mercy from Alastair Cook to opposition bowlers at international and county level now that he has relinquished the England captaincy.
Watching his illustrious team-mate ease to a match-winning century at Taunton – much of the time from the other end as they shared a secondwicket stand of 134 – Westley was well placed to assess Cook’s response to the tough decision of handing over the England reins.
There was certainly no sign of a negative reaction in an untroubled 110, put together with the calm authority of a world-class batsman. And, while Cook chose to avoid the media at the end of his side’s first win back in the top flight of the Specsavers County Championship, Westley bubbled over with awe for his character and skill.
“There are not enough words to describe how impressive Cookie is as a person,” he said.
“On top of his decision to resign as England captain, he didn’t play in our opening Championship game because of a hip injury.
“Dealing with both things in his own way, he goes and scores a fifty in our first innings and a match-winning hundred in the second.
“He is simply a phenomenal cricketer and relentless in his hunger to score many more runs for England. Equally, he desires success for Essex and wants to do well for us.”
The eight-wicket win over last season’s runners-up and the manner in which they approached a testing victory target of 255 stamped Essex as potential title contenders this summer. Westley was in no mood to argue.
“Our top seven is as good or better a batting line-up than any other county’s, and we are very workmanlike with our bowling,” he said.
“We are not setting targets or predicting where we will finish. But we have some very good players who are not even in the team at the moment.”
Westley’s unbeaten 82 saw Essex across the finishing line at Taunton, leaving Somerset’s young captain Tom Abell with much to ponder.
“We let ourselves down with the bat,” he said. “We cannot afford to let this game define our season and will be working hard to be better against Lancashire.”