Jos Buttler also reacted to England's controversial rotation policy.
Former England captain Alastair Cook said that he genuinely feels really sorry for Joe Root for ECB's rotation policy as the current Test captain isn’t able to have his strongest XI for the last one year after the hosts lost the home series 0-1 to New Zealand last week.
As part of ECB’s controversial rotation policy, England rested several key players from the eight Tests the team has so far played this year, resulting in Root missing many key elements in his XI and England lost series against India in India and against New Zealand at home.
ECB has defended the policy as a sensible response to deal with the mental and health pressure that comes in with the prolonged periods living in the bio-secure bubbles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Cook feels the system has left the current national team “chasing their tail”.
Cook said, “You have to say it hasn't worked for Rooty, and I do genuinely feel sorry for him. When you're playing for England, or you're the captain, coach, or selector, you get judged on end results most of the time and he hasn't had his best players available. You can't buy the experience of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali -- those kind of players make a big difference.”
He further added: “I've never had to captain during a pandemic -- I didn't even know what a pandemic was when I was captain -- but you've got a Test captain who hasn't been able to play his best side. The decisions don't seem like they've been made correctly.
I've been on the other side, where you're trying to make decisions for the right reasons, but you get judged on your results by it, don't you? It was going so well, winning the Test series at home, then Sri Lanka away and 1-0 up against India. Then you rest and rotate players, and ever since that moment on it's been chasing their tail a little bit.”
Meanwhile, Jos Buttler said on the policy: “I don't think there are any perfect answers. Of course, it's always frustrating to miss games. You wish you were available for everything. But in the current climate with all the complications of Covid etc, I do think we have to look after our people.”
Noteworthy, England will be soon seen in action against Sri Lanka in a home white-ball series starting on June 23 followed by a limited-over series against Pakistan next month.
(With AFP Inputs)