Alastair Cook on England Match Practice: Former England opener Alastair Cook has expressed a concern about his team on the India tour. According to him, not playing practice matches before the Test series in India can create some problems for England. He also said that cricket boards should reach an agreement among themselves that practice matches should be organized for the visiting teams on good pitches.
This time the England team preferred to sweat in the training camp instead of playing practice matches in India. This decision of not playing practice matches was taken because in recent years it has often been seen that whenever a team goes somewhere for a Test tour, the host board does not provide them the kind of pitch on which the Test is played. Matches are to be played. In such a situation, practice matches have no importance.
On this matter, Alastair Cook has written in an article for “Sunday Times”, 'The problem is that the preparations of the England team will not be complete. It would be good if there is some kind of agreement between the countries so that good pitches are provided to the visiting teams in their practice matches. When England won the Test series on Indian grounds in 2012-13, the English team played three practice matches before the series.
'First 30 balls are important for a batsman in India'
Alastair Cook also wrote here on England's style of baseball. Even during the India tour, he appeared optimistic about this playing style of England. He wrote, 'I now think that it (baseball) offers a good chance for success. The England team will not follow the traditional rules of batting in the Indian subcontinent. Along with this, Cook also wrote that the first 30 balls are the most important for a batsman on Indian pitches. These balls give them practice to test the pitch and play big innings in the future.
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