England doctor pitches admits candid Cook
The vice captain of the England team Alastair Cook has come out of the closet to castigate the English media after they had created a fuss over the Melbourne pitch being switched, to suit the Australians in the next test. Many in the English media had said
that the MCG pitch had been specifically chosen to expose the weak side of England. The decision of the curator at Melbourne Cameron Hodgkins to choose the more moist of the two pitches available has sparked a new debate in the English circles who have hinted
at a conspiracy on the part of the curator. Thus exhuming the ancient sparring about ‘pitch doctoring’ that dates back to England off-spinner Jim Laker’s ‘dustbowl’ at the Old Trafford ground in the year 1956.
Alastair Cook thankfully was mature about this inane bantering and said that it was not a thing of the past for England to request match surfaces to be made specifically to suit their own teams. This apparently happened at the Oval last year and said that
there should be no issues over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 taking a similar path to one that they had taken themselves in the past.
"I think that's the beauty of home conditions isn't it, you can prepare a pitch to hopefully suit the home side. That's what we try and do in England in certain cases and there's no reason why I would expect Australia not to do it. If you went to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750,
they played three spinners and produced a green seamer you'd be wondering what's going on, so that is what home advantage is and you'd expect everyone to do it,” Alastair Cook stated.
In the wake of one of the most embarrassing defeats at the hands of the Aussies at Perth, where they lost by 267 runs, Cook was not looking forward to playing at a similar surface they had played in last week. However he did go on to say that him and his
team mates were prepared for whatever conditions they are made to play in.
He said that as a batsman one always expects to bat on a flat wicket however that does not always happen. He admitted that they were outplayed by the formidable Aussies who found their rhythm in the last test, however he did go on to say that their record
on bouncy wickets has been relatively good especially their record at Old Trafford.
The pitch he said was something not in their control and that in itself has been the beauty of cricket. The conditions are ever changing and there is a need to adapt to whatever circumstances or scenario’s one is faced with.
"The challenge is making sure we are ready and adapting to those conditions. We've got to trust ourselves first and foremost, our training methods over the next couple of days are important to that," he said.
It will be interesting to see what changes England make to their batting line up and overall strategy. There is a likelihood that Ian Bell would be promoted to play up the order rather than playing at number 6. Paul Collingwood has looked very rusty in the
opening three tests and Kevin Pietersen, other than his heroics at Adelaide, has not given a consistent performance.
The positive for Australia out of the last test is that the momentum is certainly with them. Their bowlers have made a good comeback and their batsmen, most importantly Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 and Mike Hussey have looked in good shape. Ponting’s inclusion in the next
test still remains doubtful as he battles from a fractured little finger. If Ponting cannot be played then it is likely that Usman Khwaja will be taking his place in the line up and Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 will be assuming the skippers role. A change of a skipper can
prove to be disastrous for Australia that too in the crucial fourth test. It remains to be seen how both teams play out their mind games in the build to the boxing day at Adelaide.
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