Alastair Cook says Anderson's comment has been blown out of proportion

It was yet another clinical performance by Team India as they won their 5th consecutive Test series by defeating Alastair Cook & Co. in the 4th Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by a whopping margin of an innings & 36 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin was again at his sublime best and finished off the English tail within a blink of an eye in the first session of the final day.

Beginning the day at 183/6, England lost Jonny Bairstow to an Ashwin carrom ball early on in the innings and there was no way back for the visitors. Ashwin was quick to deceive Chris Woakes with a beautifully flighted delivery outside the off stump which breached his defence and castled him. Adil Rashid was quick to follow to leave the visitors reeling at 193/9.

However, the main drama was yet to unfold. Just when No.11 James Anderson was walking in, Ashwin welcomed the fast bowler with a few words and took him to the batting end before he was called back. The ace spinner was obviously disappointed with some comments made by Anderson on Kohli’s technical deficiencies in batting after the end of the day’s play yesterday.

Kohli who was unaware of such an incident was quite bemused when he came to know it from Ashwin but took it on a light-hearted note but wasn’t too impressed. “For the first time, I was trying to calm things down,” said Kohli jokingly. “Ashwin wasn’t pleased with whatever (Anderson) said something in the press or something like that. Ashwin told me on the ground, I had no clue about it. So I didn’t know what to make of it, I was laughing about it but Ashwin wasn’t too impressed so he let him know. Not using any bad words, honestly.

“I think, (Ashwin) told (Anderson) he was pretty disappointed with what he said and it’s important to accept defeat the way it is and things like that. You know how Ashwin is, he’s to the point, he can really strike you well. He doesn’t need to say bad words. That’s exactly what happened. Later on, I told James that it’s fine, these things happen so let’s move on with it,” said Kohli.

Meanwhile English captain Alastair Cook wasn’t too pleased with what Ashwin said on the field. He felt Anderson’s comment was blown out of proportions and it was just an assessment made by an opposition player on a batsman which might be correct to a certain extent.

“It was a bit of a sour end, a disappointing end in terms of how well the spirit between both sides has been,” he said. “It was clearly in reference to what Jimmy said yesterday, which is kind of getting blown out of all proportions, as it can do here. He was just stating a fact about Virat which is probably true. Yeah, (Ashwin) was just obviously sticking up for his captain, which I thought was slightly unnecessary.”Anderson which was in question was when he interacted with the media after the end of the 4th day’s play. He had said that Kohli was a very good player in Indian conditions and all the technical deficiencies he had wasn’t visible on subcontinental pitches. He referred back to the 2014 series where Anderson bossed over Kohli dismissing him several times in conditions where there were more swing and bounce.

Anderson had said that Kohli was a very good player in Indian conditions and all the technical deficiencies he had wasn’t visible on subcontinental pitches. He referred back to the 2014 series where Anderson bossed over Kohli dismissing him several times in conditions where there was more swing and bounce.

“I’m not sure he’s changed. I just think any technical deficiencies he’s got aren’t in play out here. The wickets just take that out of the equation. There’s not that pace in the wicket to get the nicks, like we did against him in England with a bit more movement.”

“When that’s not there, he’s very much suited to playing in these conditions. He’s a very good player of spin and if you’re not bang on the money and don’t take your chances, he’ll punish you,” Anderson said about Kohli.