England nice Alastair Cook delivered a stinging rebuke to the present group’s batsmen by saying they “can’t deal with” the pressure of Test cricket as they suffered a humiliating series loss to New Zealand at Edgbaston on Sunday.
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New Zealand won a two-match contest 1-0, taking just 11 overs and 52 minutes’ playing time on the fourth day to complete a convincing eight-wicket win in the second Test after being set a meagre target of 38.
Tailender Olly Stone was out to the very first ball of Sunday’s fourth day but by then the damage had long since been done, with England resuming on their overnight 122-9.
That actually represented a recovery after they had subsided to 76-7 in their second innings inside 27 overs on Saturday.
Although Joe Root, Cook’s successor as England captain, boasts an impressive Test average of 48.68, the next best in his side belongs to opener Rory Burns, with 33.23 — a worrying sign ahead of their bid to regain the Ashes in Australia later this year.
Meanwhile, the form of batsmen Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope remains a concern, not least to Essex opener Cook, who retired from Test duty in 2018 as England’s leading scorer with 12,472 runs at 45.35 including 33 hundreds.
“From what I’ve seen of this batting line-up, when the pressure comes on, the intensity of Test cricket, the scrutiny of it, they can’t handle it,” stated Cook whereas commentating for BBC Radio’s Test Match Special on Sunday.
“They have quirky strategies, however they’ve scored a variety of runs in county cricket and at instances scored Test runs.
“When the strain comes they aren’t dealing with the psychological strain that you just want to do,” he added.
“It is a massive area of concern for me.”
– ‘Outplayed’ –
Sunday’s defeat, which adopted a draw at Lord’s, meant England had misplaced a house Test collection for the primary time since a 1-0 reverse towards Sri Lanka in 2014.
But Root, forward of a five-match collection at house to India — who face New Zealand in subsequent week’s inaugural World Test Championship last at Southampton — warned towards wholesale adjustments.
“It can be the improper time to begin panicking and rip up all of the laborious work we now have carried out for such an extended time period,” he said.
“Historically we’ve done that going into major tournaments and going into major series and it’s made things even worse.”
He added: “We’ve been outplayed in all three departments and notably the batting.”
England entered this match amid the off-field furore caused by the suspension of Ollie Robinson for historic racist and sexist Twitter posts.
Root, however, insisted: “I don’t think that dripped into the way we played and it would be a bit of an excuse, to be honest.”
England, already with out the injured Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, rested Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali from this collection after their return from the Indian Premier League.
Rest and rotation, initially a response to the pressures of ‘bubble’ life amid the coronavirus pandemic, has been a characteristic of England choice for greater than a 12 months.
England coach Chris Silverwood, now in sole cost of choosing the facet after the abolition of Ed Smith’s put up as nationwide selector, has repeatedly defended the coverage.
But England, overwhelmed 3-1 in India earlier this 12 months, seem to be nowhere close to ok to keep away from deciding on their best-available group.
“That’s out of my palms, to a level,” said Root. “In terms of having our best XI, I’d like to think that if we are all fit and ready that will be the case for the five Test matches against India.”
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