India vs England | Takeaways: Cook’s continued struggle and Ishant’s “dangerous” template for Moeen Ali

India vs England | Takeaways: Cook’s continued struggle and Ishant’s “dangerous” template for Moeen Ali

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Jos Buttler played yet another impressive and stoic innings amidst a familiar English collapse to take England to 268/8 with the effective lead standing at 233 runs. The promotion of Moeen Ali reaped indirect dividends, but Alastair Cook continued to divide opinions with yet another low score.

End of the road for the great man Cook?

When India travelled to England four years ago, Alastair Cook was amidst a disastrous run - both as a captain and as a player. While England had not won single Test in 10 matches, his own form was at an all-time low. He had not scored a Test hundred for over a year and was averaging 23 over that period. He was in search of a desperate knock to get himself out of that mental block and the Ageas Bowl offered him that opportunity as he scored 95 and 70* in order to get back his form. 

Cut to the year 2018, Cook found himself in a similar situation of sorts. Apart from the double century against West Indies at Edgbaston last summer and a fine 244 against Australia at the MCG in the last Ashes, the former English skipper hasn’t done anything significant to keep in contention for the following series. In this series alone, he has scored just 109 runs at an average of 13.60. Although most of the English players have struggled to score runs, Cook is an experienced campaigner and unlike most of the other batsmen, doesn’t have age on his side. 

However, it is a matter worth remembering that, dripping Cook would be a purely amateurish decision. Particularly given the continued struggle of Keaton Jennings and the fact that England doesn’t have a lot of world-class openers, Cook’s ousting may prove to be the final nail in the coffin. Bringing Rory Burns to replace Jennings will be a huge boost for the side and the Surrey opener can learn a lot from his Essex counterpart. Cook is a fine servant to English cricket and he deserves to get a longer rope than others. 

Moeen Ali promotion restores English balance

Firstly, let me make this clear - Moeen Ali can bat at the top of the order and has even partnered Cook in Test cricket in the past. He also batted at No.3 Worcestershire and he coming out to bat at No.3 shouldn’t surprise anyone. If anything, it caught India off guard. 

Ollie Pope’s omission from the Test brought about a lot of changes to the batting line-up in the first innings. Jonny Bairstow, who has batted mostly at number five and below in his career, had to come in at No. 4, Ben Stokes, who has batted at number six 61 times in Test cricket, batted at No.5, and Jos Buttler, a specialist number seven for the last five Tests, was promoted one position ahead. It forced Joe Root to go one position up as well which exposed him to new ball instantly. 

However, as Moeen came into bat at No.3 - a position that he is most comfortable with on the county circuit - normalcy resumed. Root came back to bat at No. 4 and although he failed to make any significant contribution, he seemed to be at home, as was Jos Buttler, who scored yet another industrious half-century.

Ishant paves way for Ashwin, but the danger for India   

Ishant Sharma was warned once on the first day by umpire Kumar Dharmasena for running on the pitch when he tried England's left-handers from around the wicket. Despite being a good bowler from around the wicket, Ishant somehow failed to control himself and left a decently sized footmark outside the right-handers off-stump from the pavilion end. Ishant’s carelessness, however, became a blessing in disguise for Moeen Ali, who exploited those rough marks to great effect and picked up a fifer.

The task was cut out for Ashwin in the second innings, who needed to target those areas. But Ashwin, who bowled with lesser speed than usual, tried doing too much instead of bowling in those marks. And when Ishant was warned for the second time for the same crime, the mark had become more prominent. With England already taking a big lead in the innings, batting in the fourth innings will not be easy and the duo of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid can take the benefit of them when India will come out to bat. 

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