Batsmen have serious questions to answer – starting with Cook

For some time now, Alastair Cook has been getting out for too many low scores. He needs to ask himself a question: am I coming to the end? His job as an opener is to see off the new ball and give the England innings a sound start. He has hardly done that in the past two years. A double hundred in Melbourne on a flat, non-bouncy pitch and a double hundred versus West Indies last year were marvellous efforts, but they are not enough. They swell his Test figures but they do not help the team as much as consistent starts.

England are struggling to find new batsmen, and even more so new openers, but Alastair cannot go on like this.

Technically, he is getting out playing at the new ball with half a bat. The bat face is open at 45 degrees at the point of contact, so the ball easily nicks off to the slips.

It is hard enough playing the new ball with a full bat face, so when it is swinging around it is imperative you get into positions where you can leave anything just outside off stump that you do not have to play. When you do play the ball, you make sure it is with the full face of the bat. The old saying is: “Try to play the ball back whence it came.”

Ishant Sharma is making batting very difficult for Cook. Maybe he should bat on off stump, open his stance a touch but stop opening the face of the bat. Play much straighter down the pitch. He has got out to Sharma 11 times in his Test career and they have all been pretty similar dismissals. If I can see his problem just watching on television, what are Cook and the coaches doing about it with all the technology they have at their disposal?

Playing the new ball well is as much about what you leave as what you play at. Nearly all the danger is just outside off stump, with slips and wicketkeeper waiting for nicks. The very best batsmen have great judgment of what to leave and what to play. The more you leave balls outside off stump, the more the bowler gets frustrated and bowls a bit straighter and that is when you can pick him off on the safer leg side.

Every opening batsman should be smart and accept that if good seamers are fresh and raring to go, and you give them a new ball, they will be a handful, so the answer is survive, play carefully and sensibly and wait until the ball loses a bit of shine and hardness, then batting gets easier.

Keaton Jennings plays in a stiff, mechanical way. He sits on the back foot and waits for the ball to come to him and tries to play like Marcus Trescothick, withdrawing the bat inside the line of the ball at the last moment. The trouble is, he is not as good as Marcus.

Standing still in a wooden manner is not a great way to bat. You need rhythm and fluidity as the brain tells the arms and legs to move smoothly in unison. All the best batsmen not only look good but move beautifully as well. They have great footwork and glide into perfect positions. I do not believe you can be consistently successful against a moving ball stuck rigidly in the crease.

Joe Root was out fending and fencing away from his body. He always seems to be trying to get bat on ball and score from every ball he receives. It seems churlish to criticise one of the best batsmen in the world and a guy who is our best player with an excellent Test record, so I will not do that. It would be unfair, but I do feel so much one-day cricket has had a big effect on batsmen’s technique and thinking, and that includes Joe.

The range of attacking shots and the frequency with which guys attempt to hit the ball has increased. Even when Joe plays a defensive stroke, he is looking to run for a single. It seems to be all about scoring. Hardly anyone today tries to stay in.

Youngsters are conditioned to hitting the ball and scoring runs at a fast pace. That is fine when you are set, but when you first go in it is fraught with danger. Surely, you should try to bat according to the state of the match. No team have made 521 to win a Test in the history of the game and this England team are definitely not good enough to set a world record.

Instead, it was about staying in, wearing down the Indian bowlers and batting for pride, yet Root was caught on the crease so often by Jasprit Bumrah, who worked him over from wide of the crease, taking him out of his comfort zone so that eventually he flashed at a wide ball.

Ollie Pope is a young man, and we all wish him well, but he played a dreadful stroke. A flashing off drive at a tempting wide ball was silly. He fell for a sucker ball. It was a gimme wicket. Right from the start, he did not want to leave the ball. He was so keen to feel the ball hitting the bat he went after it all the time. He should have been leaving the ball, making the bowlers bowl straighter, staying in and then picking them off.

Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes played beautifully. If a naturally aggressive batsman such as Stokes can apply his mind and technique to staying in, then Root and Pope should have done better.

Playing the new ball well is as much about what you leave as what you play at