Cook: 'We were not good enough'

From the frustration of being "not good enough to take the opportunity to get ahead" in the third Test to the team taking a break in Dubai ahead of the next Test in Mumbai, the England skipper reflected on several topics after India’s eight-wicket victory on Tuesday

'I think all of us misread this pitch. If we known what we have known now, we would have obviously gone in with four seamers and two spinners.'

A crestfallen Alastair Cook is candid about where England finds itself in the three-match old Test series.

From the frustration of being “not good enough to take the opportunity to get ahead” in the third Test to the team taking a break in Dubai ahead of the next Test in Mumbai, the England skipper reflected on several topics after India’s eight-wicket victory on Tuesday. Excerpts:

On the positives from the defeat: What we did is… we showed good character to drag ourselves back into the game. India was 204-6 – still 70 runs behind us. And then they obviously scored the lower-order runs and passed our score. We managed to drag ourselves back in but in this part of the world, you need a big score, certainly on a wicket like that. There is no hiding behind it. We were not good enough to do that.

On the pitch: I think all of us misread this pitch. If we known what we have known now, we would have obviously gone in with four seamers and two spinners. Because the seamers are always in the game, with a bit of reverse... we can control the scoring rate. I looked at that wicket along with a number of people before the game thought it was more dry. We all thought it’s going to spin more. So in hindsight we would have played four and two but I am quite happy with my decision because I thought it's the right one at that time.

On the difference between the teams of 2012 and now: The India we played in 2012 was different, probably an ageing team compared to now. Now, it’s a different set-up, more youngsters who also have got four years of experience in these conditions. We, in 2012, were a lot more experienced side and played a lot more in the sub-continent over last three years before that. This side, only two in the top-order have played more than one or two games in the subcontinent before we played in Bangladesh. That’s probably the difference.

On the way ahead: We have this week off and I think most of us are going to Dubai... mentally it will be a break from cricket. We will come back little bit more refreshed. The challenge is to try and put in that performance consistently over five days. We have done that in one game, we haven’t done in the other two.