da dobrowin： Alastair Cook has warned his England colleagues that they face athorough examination of their character if they are to avoid thehumiliation of a 3-0 series whitewash against Pakistan
George Dobell in Dubai04-Feb-2012Alastair Cook has warned his England colleagues that they face athorough examination of their character if they are to avoid thehumiliation of a 3-0 series whitewash against Pakistan.The teams will resume on day three of the third Test with Pakistanhaving already built a lead of 180 with eight second-innings wicketsin hand. Younis Khan (115 not out) and Azhar Ali (75 not out) have sofar added 194 runs for Pakistan’s third wicket and, in a low-scoringseries in which England’s batsmen have posted a total over 200 justonce, the tourists will have to produce a much-improved performance toavoid another defeat. Pakistan have already earned an unassailable 2-0lead in the series.Cook, perhaps worn down by experience, did not sound full ofconfidence about the struggle to come, but insisted that England’spride and professionalism would ensure they fought hard to denyPakistan victory and retain England’s position as the top-ranked Testside. If England lose this series 3-0 and South Africa subsequentlybeat New Zealand by the same margin, then South Africa will leapfrogEngland for the No. 1 position.”We all know we’re a very long way behind in this game,” Cook said.”But if we sit here and say ‘well, we’ve lost thisgame already’ then we might as well give Pakistan victory right now.If we’re thinking that in our dressing-room, we might as well just notbother turning up.”It will take some serious guts to drag ourselves out of this. Butthere are some bloody good players in that dressing-room, and I hopewe can stand up. Anything is possible, but it’s going to take a lot ofmental toughness to deliver it.”Cook accepted that England’s batsmen had endured a grim tour to date -none of the side are averaging as much as 30, while the middle orderof Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen are all averaging under11 – but admitted that their repeated failures were starting tofrustrate the entire squad.Younis Khan expects a better response from England on an improved track for batting•Getty Images
“We have had our struggles on this tour and it is going to take someserious character from the top six to turn it around. Iknow we’ve got the players in there. But there’s only so many timesyou can keep saying that – we’re going to have to get out there and doit.”It has been very frustrating, and we haven’t played to the standardswe know we can. But we never once thought, just because of whathappened over the last two years, we’d turn up and wipe the floor witheveryone.”Twenty-two wickets fell in the first four sessions of the match but, sincethen, Younis and Azhar have batted for 72 overs without giving achance. While Cook accepted that the Pakistan batsmen had played verywell, he also felt that the pitch had eased.”The pitch characteristics have changed. There were lesswicket-taking balls around than there were yesterday. It was quiteeasy to see that.”But they didn’t give us a chance in those last two sessions, andplayed very well. When they came in, they were still 20 runs behind us- and we had a really good opportunity to take a couple more wickets.If we had got them 50 for 4, we would have been right in the game.But now they have given us a real mountain to climb. We tried a lot ofthings. But Younis took the attack to us. He was never reckless, buthe never let the bowlers settle into any type of rhythm.”Younis agreed that conditions had eased for batsmen, but also saidthat his anger at his first-innings dismissal had inspired him in thesecond innings. He also said he expected a tough fight from Englandover the closing sessions of the series.”The pitch is much better for batting,” he said. “The first day wasdifficult with the ball seaming around. It seems like a totallydifferent pitch now.”I was very angry about how I got myself out in the first innings.Seriously angry. So I decided to play more positively and I had a verygood partner, who has a fantastic technique and plays according to thesituation.”England tried their best, but we have the edge on them. Englandhave fantastic players and they are No. 1 in the world, so itwon’t be easy for us. There could be a fightback, but they will needsome luck.”