Former England skipper Alastair Cook has criticized Cricket Australia for its unconventional pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Boxing Day Test match. He claimed that the wicket was very unconventional and the bowlers were favored as they did not work hard for wickets.
England, who have already lost the Ashes series against Australia, entered the fourth Test of the series at the MCG. England, for the first time, were in control, but failed to maintain their momentum in the second innings.
Poor MCG track favored one-sided dominance of pacers
Australia and England have qualified for the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the fourth match of the ongoing Ashes series. The first day of the Boxing Day Test saw both teams losing 20 wickets on the day.
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Australian and English hitters struggled to settle into the crease, and even well-placed hitters failed to read the bounce well. The difficult conditions also reflected on the scoreboard, as only one batter failed to register a single half-century.
Australia were bowled out for just 152 runs in their innings, but still managed a 42-run lead, while England were bowled out for just 110 runs in their innings.
“The bowlers didn’t have to work so hard for wickets,” the England star said.
Alastair Cook, the legendary England opener, gave a blunt assessment of the state of the pitch on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test. The pitch failed to provide a fair competition with equal assistance for batters and bowlers.
“It’s not a big Test wicket. Unless it flattens out on days two, three and four, if we get there, then it weighed too much in favor of the bowlers. The bowlers didn’t have to work that hard for the wickets,” Cook said on TNT Sports.
Cook admitted that the batters had several lapses in the batting innings, but also claimed that the bowlers had the pitch largely in their favor.
“Could both teams have hit a little better? Yes, but if you put the ball in the right area it was going to stifle one way or the other. It was a bit of an unfair fight,” he added.
“The ground should flatten tomorrow,” concluded Cook
The former England opener highlighted how difficult conditions were for batting at the MCG track, particularly against Australian pacer Scott Boland. Boland had displayed relentless precision and movement off the field.
“I was watching Boland, in particular, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how you deal with that.’ Left-handed, he ran around the wicket, attacking the stumps; some walked miles one way, others walked miles the other. I don’t know where to go as a right-hander either,” Cook observed.
“The ground should flatten out tomorrow [Saturday]but the field manager told me he didn’t think that would be the case,” he concluded on the matter, saying there was major doubt about the change in behavior of the track.
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