The one thing you can say about Alastair Cook is that you can’t hate him. His cricket is old-school, elegant, and has the touch of a master craftsman at work. It may not be the most exciting thing for a T20 era cricket fan, but Cook hardly cares about it. The defence, oh those sweet sounds, can frustrate any bowler of the generation. Oh.. and what about those cover drives? 

Since his Test debut in 2003, opposition openers in England have scored at an average of 32 and Cook's averaged 45.28 in the same period. Only Andrew Strauss has averaged 38 - the only one close to Cook. Since Strauss' retirement, only Joe Root has averaged over 32 when opening for England and knowing the fact that England have been suffering the "Cook-partner conundrum" for quite a while now, his worth is understandable. So, what contributed to Cook’s success in that period? The answer is actually a no-brainer - the brilliant forward defence to protect himself from dangerous deliveries. 

The trigger movement was absent in Cook’s defence and the forward prodding was not at all in sync with the movement of the bat and head. When Ishant Sharma got one ball to move back in and then seam it a bit away, Cook was beaten in defence and due to the lack of front foot press towards cover when the bowler released the ball cost him his wicket. One-off would have been understandable, but this is becoming a pattern in his batting lately, which is dangerous for his career. 

An analysis by Cricviz explains that Pope scores the vast majority of his runs through the covers and point and is a weaker batsman within the V, which might have forced the Indian seamers to pitch it up against him. But, Pope confidently belied them by playing the cross-batted strokes through covers and flicking some to mid-wicket and square leg. Most importantly, he wasn’t bothered by any type of deliveries bowled at him and pushed his leg forward to leave the balls. It is a rare thing for any debutants to show that amount of preparedness - one that shows he belongs to the stage.

But, was it only Indians fault or sheer batting majesty by the pair of Bairstow and Woakes? As it appears, the Indian pacers were also let down by the conditions that London had to offer on the day three of the Test. While the ball swung heavily on the second day of the Test (fundamentally the first day because the original Day 1 was washed out), there was no movement whatsoever after lunch today. The condition was ideal for batsmen to score runs and the sunny conditions helped them as well.