'England batting doesn’t respond too well under pressure' - Cook rues lack of experience in England squad

Alastair Cook feels the young batting line-up of England will be tested by India’s good bowling attack during the five-match Test series which beings on August 04. Apart from skipper Joe Root, the team has quite a few inexperienced players such as Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, and Rory Burns in the team. All the players were part of the team’s Test tour to India recently and struggled for timing. 

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Apart from the India series, the batters barring Burns struggled against the bowling attack of the New Zealanders too. With India potent in spin as well as the pace bowling department, England batters will no doubt have a task cut out to come unscathed in the high-octane series.

 In the Tuffers and Vaughan podcast, the former England opening batter stated how challenging it would be for the batters to face the Indian bowling attack who would relentlessly keep asking questions.  

“When the pressure comes on, this England batting unit doesn’t respond too well, they often collapse, when the game’s right on the money or when it becomes tough. It would be interesting to see how they cope with India. It will be a great challenge for them.”

Cook further elaborated on how apart from Root and Stokes, there are no experienced players from number four to seven. Stokes can bat at six but again it would expose the lower middle-order against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami.

 “We’ve also got to look at how many games these guys have played. (Dom) Sibley 20, (Rory) Burns 25, (Zak) Crawley 14, (Ollie) Pope 19. So four out of the top five, take Joe Root out of it, have played less than 25 games. In a really seasoned Test side, you only want one player with under 20 games. You want everyone else with 50-60 Tests.