Ind vs Eng, 2nd Test: Cook rues England’s batting show

Visakhapatnam: Alastair Cook on Monday expressed his disappointment with his England’s batting performance in the first innings of the second Test which saw them conceding 200-run lead to India.

The Virat Kohli-led Indian side made sure to consolidate the position and won the Vizag Test by 246 runs to take 1-0 lead in the five-match Test series.

The England skipper, meanwhile, also lauded team's fighting skipper after being pushed on the backfoot.

“Think we saw the first day was easiest to bat, then you can see it became harder. It was a good toss to win, no doubt.  From losing those five wickets on day two - you have to score first-innings runs - but from that moment we showed a lot of character and fight. We made India work very hard,” said Cook.

Cook, who fell in the final over on day four after keeping Indian bowlers at bay for 221 balls, also reflected on his batting performance, saying: "It wasn't a great moment to fight so hard (and then get out in the last over) so (it) was disappointing to get out at the end.”

India made the most of their decision of electing to bat on the Vizag track that helped the batsmen a great deal on the first couple of days.

Although India lost openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul cheaply on day one, hundreds from Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli laid a solid foundation to India’s 455-run total.

Although England put up a brilliant show to deny India a win in the opening Test in Rajkot, they could not repeat the same feat in Visakhapatnam. However, Cook preferred to look at the brighter aspects of his side without forgetting that England will need to win a couple of games in order to make a comeback in the series.

“We played some good cricket at stages in these first two games. We need to win a couple of games to get ourselves back in the series," concluded Cook.