Former England captain Alastair Cook lashed out at the England Test team after their innings defeat in the first Test match against South Africa at Lord’s. Cook called out the lack of First Class games coming into the series and said that there were no excuses for this mess up.
“What is weird is we normally talk about the touring side running into a series with not enough match practice,” Cook said on BBC’s Test match special.
Cook has said that the schedule of matches should be changed. The players will come on the back of the Hundred and Royal One Day Cup competitions instead of the red ball matches. After playing the Test against India, England players have only played white-ball cricket.
“We always say it’s such an advantage in the first game England normally have in Test series.
We’re talking about the structure of the game so much, we’re talking about when should cricket be played… it makes zero sense that there is no first-class cricket going on for anyone to play when there’s a Test match series going on,” he further added.
England last played a Test match in the one off game against India, which was originally set to be played in 2021. Since then, the team has been under the captaincy of Jos Buttler and have played only white-ball series. In the domestic side of things, players have been kept busy with the Royal London Cup and The Hundred and have not had any time to practice with the red ball.