Alaister Cook to retire from International cricket

Alastair Cook to retire from International Cricket

England's all-time highest run scorer- Alastair Cook has decided to retire from International cricket soon after the last test match (of the series) against India at the Oval. Great Alastair is an opening batsman of England and is fighting form from many matches. He is averaging 18.62 of the nine matches this year. Alastair made his test debut in Nagpur in 2006 and scored a century on his debut.

Alastair Cook raising his bat.

Image source- www.skysports.com

33-year-old Alastair is having 12,254 Test runs and stands on 6th position of most run scorers in the history of Test Cricket. Cook was a threat to Sachin Tendulkar's record of most runs in Test cricket. He is 3,667 runs behind the Master Blaster. Cook has the record of most unbroken appearances in Test cricket in the World. His last test match in International cricket at Oval against India will be his 159th appearance. Cook also holds the record of most number of centuries for England in Test cricket (32).

"After much thought and deliberation over the last few months I have decided to announce my retirement from international cricket at the end of this Test series against India"- said Alastair Cook.

After the retirement of Andrew Strauss from Test cricket, England has tried 12 opening partners with Cook but none is proven to be a proper replacement. The Legend England former captain- Alastair Cook will continue to play for Sussex but, it is a mammoth task on England selectors to find 2 proper Opening Batsmen for their nation in Test cricket.

Alastair Cook will always be remembered and respected for his great batting technique and relatively good guidance to the youngsters. He is and will be one of the greats in Test Cricket of all time.

England wins the Test series by 3-1 with a match to go

England wins the Test series by 3-1 with a match to go.

England seals the five-match test series against India by 3-1 by winning the 4th match at Southampton. The 4th match was scheduled on 30th August and went till 2nd September. Moeen Ali proving to be the nemesis for India took 9 wickets in the match. He is awarded as Man of the Match. Despite, a good fight, India fell 60 runs short of the target of 245 runs.

Moeen Ali celebrating.

Image source- www.iol.co.za

It was a neck to neck competition where England won the toss and decided to bat first. After England were 6 down at 86 it looked that Indians will restrict the hosts under 150. But, Sam Curran and Moeen Ali took the team to a total of 246. Visitors replied well with a century of Pujara and scored 271 runs. England’s middle and lower middle order gave a target of 245 to the Indians. The Indian side was 3 down at the score of 22 and was in serious trouble. But Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane stabilized the situation. They secured a 101 run- stand. It all looked well controlled till the magical Moeen took an important wicket of Virat. Ajinkya was batting well but was not supported well. Resultingly, he lost his wicket. Later Ashwin had some runs but those were not enough to take the team home. Moeen Ali took 4 wickets in the later innings and India tumbled down at 184 runs.

It was a great competition. England leads the 5 match series by 3-1 but, the gap isn’t much big (if I talk about the performances of both sides). Sam Curran was exceptional in this series. He played the role of an all-rounder in difficult times. But now, let’s get tuned for the next match and for the Asia Cup and hope for some good action.