Former England Captain Praises Indian Fast Bowling Department

Alastair Cook, the former captain of England national team, has said that the India’s fast bowling department has added more variety and depth while touring abroad than they had in the past.

Cricket news: The pacers of India have added more variations and has come of age, says Cook

Cook is currently the highest Test run-getter for England and sixth highest all over the world and has got a chance to overtake the great Sachin Tendulkar for the highest Test runs record.

Ahead of the gruelling five-match Test series against India, Cook said in a Cricket Country agency report, “India seems to have got a good variety of bowlers, especially pace bowlers, which is probably unusual. They have strength in depth in their pace bowling.”

“Over the last couple of years – certainly in the last 10 years I’ve played them – they haven’t had the option of playing five or six different types of seamers. That’s different to what I have experienced in the past but we’ll see over the next six weeks,” the 33-year-old player said.

He had captained the Brits in the 2-1 win series in India in 2012-13 and 3-1 series win in England in 2014. However his side was bulldozed 0-4 in India in 2016-17 series.

Cook has also praised the Indian batsmen, mainly Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara, despite the fact that both the batsmen had failed to score runs in the warmup game against Essex in Chelmsford.

“With very good players, the form is certainly temporary. The reason they’re very good players is the number of runs they’ve scored in the past over a sustained period of time,” the left-hander said about the Indian batsmen.

Cook even said that the ability of the Indian batsmen to score runs after a bad phase makes the team No. 1 in the world.

Cook has scored 12,145 runs in 156 Tests at an average of 45.65 and has indicated that he will perform well against India, which he normally does against his favourite opposition.