Windies vs England: Alastair Cook slams visitors’ preparation after Barbados debacle

England came into the three-match Test series against Jason Holder’s Windies having the upper hand and rightly so, bearing in mind the teams’ recent form in red-ball cricket that has been contrasting, to say the least. However, things turned out to be completely different in the opening encounter at the Kensington Oval in Barbados as Joe Root and Co lost the match by a mammoth 381 runs.

In the meantime, Alastair Cook, the former English left-handed batsman, lashed out at the Three Lions for the lack of preparation prior to the series. The Brits drew a couple of warm-up matches against a Cricket West Indies President’s XI team and Cook, who retired from international cricket last year, feels that the two-day matches weren’t adequate to brush up the skills of the English players.

It’s imperative that you then undergo proper competition

“Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail. That has become a cliche in sport but overuse does not erode its essential truth. Look at England over four days in Bridgetown. They didn’t have their fighting edge, and that is not surprising when you consider their pre-Test schedule.

“I know what it’s like at the start of a tour. Physically, you might feel a bit tired by the end of the first week after the fitness training and nets, but mentally you’re relaxed,” Cook wrote in his exclusive column for Sunday Times.

“It’s imperative that you then undergo proper competition… England did not get that. However hard they tried in the two warm-up games, those fixtures added up to less of an experience than four-day first-class cricket would have offered.

At the bare minimum, they should have had a two-day game in which 15 players were used… followed by a four-day match featuring the probable Test XI. If they weren’t match hardened before, they will be now. This side has a history of bouncing back,” he added.

After bowling out the Windies for 289 in the first innings, England were bowled out for 77. Shane Dowrich and Jason Holder then made sure that the visitors set a massive target for Root’s men, who were shot out for 246 second time around. The second Test starts on January 31 in Antigua.

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