Former England captain Alastair Cook was displeased with India’s decision to use a concussion substitute in the fourth T20I in Pune. All-rounder Shivam Dube was hit on the helmet after reaching his half-century on the second-to-last ball of India‘s innings.
As a result, Dube did not take the field during England’s chase, and India replaced him with specialist pacer Harshit Rana. While concussion protocols require a like-for-like replacement, Rana’s superior bowling ability compared to Dube raised concerns.
This move sparked outrage among several former England cricketers, including Cook, who expressed his frustration while speaking to TNT Sports, as quoted by BBC.
“Replacing a big-hitting batting all-rounder, who has bowled one over in the IPL [in 2024], with a guy who can’t bat and bowls heavy seam makes no sense to me whatsoever. It seems absolute madness that you are allowed to do it, but credit to the lad on debut, but he shouldn’t be allowed to play there. It gave the captain another brilliant option.”
“England’s Shot Selection Was Reckless”: Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook criticized England’s batters for playing reckless shots, which cost them the match in Pune despite being in a strong position against India. Amid the concussion substitute controversy, the visitors were cruising at 129/4 in the 15th over, needing just 53 runs from 34 balls.
However, a string of careless strokes led to a dramatic collapse, with England being bowled out for 166 with two balls to spare.
“England were dumb with some of their shots and that is quite a hard thing to say because T20 cricket is a balancing act. Sometimes the modern thinking is not right. Ben Duckett played beautifully today and we were 62-0 with one ball of the powerplay left. Just see it out and knock a single, then regroup again,” said Cook.
He further added:
“I don’t know if it is ego to just keep on playing their way. Just take a single and think about how important the next three or four overs against spin are going to be and your best player of spin can go at six or seven an over. If Brook had hit Chakravarthy for six runs they’d have needed just 10 in the final five overs with their best bowler done.”
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