Beleaguered England captain Alastair Cook on Thursday conceded that they may have gone wrong with some of the tactics they employed in what has been a disastrous Test series against India but insisted that there was no lack of effort. "One thing I can't be criticised for is the togetherness and I have no regrets on the effort we have made. We would rather not be 3-0 down. Decisions, in hindsight, we would have certainly changed. We got some decisions wrong, but what happens, happens. I don't think anyone can fault us for how hard we fought," Cook said.
Questions have been raised about Cook's captaincy in the series, with some saying it is time the baton is passed to Joe Root, but he sought to underplay the debate. "You get judged on your results, don't youIJ When you lose games you come under criticism. It happens to everyone, when Virat loses games, he will get criticised. When I lose games, I get criticised. That is part and parcel of it. When you are part of the leadership and stuff, you live and die by those decisions. When everything is going well, it looks good, everything is going badly, it looks terrible. You are probably somewhere in the middle most of the time."
Asked about the pitch, he said, "It looks a good wicket. I don't think anyone knows really how it is going to play. I have never seen a wicket dried with coals before. The groundstaff has done a fantastic job looking at it from where it was a couple of days ago. Anyone goes by looks, it is a pretty hard, dry wicket."
Training sessions were cancelled both the days before the Test owing to a wet ground, despite the stadium boasting of one of the best drainage systems in the country."Cricket players face all kinds of situations. I think it is my 140th game, and I have never played in a game where we haven't had nets but sometimes you have to remember what happened in the cyclone, people lost their lives," said Cook. "So, a nets session a day before doesn't seem quite as important as what people have gone through. We are only driving from hotel to here, airport to hotel. looking around, it is a reminder how lucky we are," he added.