Former captain Alastair Cook rues England’s collapse on Day 1 in Dharamsala: ‘Same thing whole series, real bad 45 minutes’

From 100/1, England went to being all out for 218 on Day 1 of the fifth and final Test against India in Dharamsala. Having won the toss and opted to bat first, the visitors had got off to a good start in the first session thanks to a 64-run stand between openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley.

A wicket late in the first session however, paved the way back in for the hosts. At Stumps, India trailed only by 83 runs with nine wickets intact. Speaking on TNT Sports at the end of the day’s play, former England captain Alastair Cook shared remorse over the visitors letting their grip over the game slip – a repetitive act during the ongoing series.

Speaking of the collapse at Tea, Cook said, “All the buildup to this wicket had been, ‘It’s all about the seam’…’There’s going to be swing movement’. Actually, England would’ve felt like they had done the hard work. Whether they mentally relaxed a bit, thinking, ‘Well, we’ve got through Bumrah and the swinging bowl. It’s not going to spin.’ And it didn’t actually spin that much in the start. The wicket has definitely spun more than everyone was actually telling us back here and the players did.

“It’s the same thing in the whole series: England had a real bad 45 minutes. They did in the last Test match, they’ve done in this Test as well. Now, it’s an uphill battle to get back in the game,” he added.

India’s bowler Kuldeep Yadav celebrates after taking five wickets during the first day of the fifth Test cricket match between India and England, in Dharamshala, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (PTI Photo)

For India, it was the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav, who split nine wickets between each other with the latter registering his first five-wicket haul in the series.

Ashwin on the other hand, surpassed Tom Hartley as the leading wicket taker in the ongoing five-match series (21).

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In the last session of Day 1, with the opening partnership between Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal going strong at 104, Shoaib Bashir provided England with their sole breakthrough of the day.

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