http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026 hopes for a fresh start in the one-day series - Cricket News Update
The One Day captain of the England cricket team, Alastair Cook hopes that his side will put their abysmal performance in the Test series behind them when they take on Pakistan in the first ODI of the four-match series starting at the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imtiaz-Sheikh-c64290 Zayed Stadium,
Abu Dhabi on Monday, February 13, 2012.
"It's been a tough five weeks as a Test tour but this is now a different, fresh side and hopefully we can bring that enthusiasm into the game tomorrow," said Cook while speaking to media reporters on the eve of the series opener.
Cook’s men come into the four-match ODI series at the back of a 3-0 Test series whitewash, something that has never happened in the history of England-Pakistan cricketing rivalry. Besides the Test series rout, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013’s record in their last two offshore
ODI series is also quite discouraging, they lost 6-1 to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in September. Sandwiched in between those two series was a poor show at the world cup that saw the Poms lose at the quarter-final stage.
In the recently concluded Test series, the star-studded English batting line up was exposed by the spinning trio of Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859
was the star performer with 24 wickets, closely followed by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdur-Rehman-c41691 who took 19 wickets in the six innings.
Cook, however, said that his side would fare better against the Pakistani spinners in the one-day series.
"Certainly the one-day game dictates you have to be more positive and we're not going to have men around the bat all the time so it changes your mentality as a batter, it frees you up," Cook said.
"We've got a good record against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and have had success against these bowlers before in one-day cricket so hopefully, we won't banish memories of what happened in the Test matches, but you get to free up a little bit and attack," the top-order batsman
added further.
Cook agreed that having clinched the Test series 3-0, Misbah and his Men in Green will be high on confidence. However, he pointed out that they will come up against a revised strategy in the one-day series, further adding that the first hour of Monday’s
ODI will be crucial for both the sides.
The return of all-rounder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745, last Friday, will further add depth to the Pakistan team.
Cook also confirmed that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806 will be opening the innings for England on Monday.
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