Cook plays innings of his life for England 
– Gooch

By stumps on day four of the first Test against India – his first as permanent captain – Cook had batted throughout the four sessions of England’s second innings and helped them successfully overturn a mammoth initial deficit of 330 runs.

Cook’s 21st Test century, combined with an unbroken stand of 141 with Matt Prior (84no), took England to 340-5 at stumps and a lead of 10 heading into the final day in Ahmedabad.

It was an utterly defiant and resourceful performance, on a worn pitch favouring India’s spinners, which might not save England but was a virtuoso demonstration of his skill and determination.

Gooch, England’s batting coach, has spent much of the past decade, for club and country, being impressed by what he has seen from his Essex protege – but he does not believe he has seen anything better than this knock.

“Some players blossom under the captaincy as a performer, and he has certainly blossomed under that responsibility here,” said Gooch, who now stands one behind Cook in England’s list of all-time most prolific centurions.

“It was great commitment from our guys and great fighting spirit. There was belief in their own ability, and Alastair led from the front as captain.

“That will do him the world of good to put that score on the board, showing what he is capable of and what this team is capable of.

“I think that was as good an innings as I’ve seen him play, because he was under great pressure after a poor first-innings performance from the team.”

Cook’s great strengths, Gooch points out, are his ability to adapt to conditions and an awareness of his own limitations.

“He can do it because he is one of the best players in the world,” the former England captain added.

“It is not just physical skill I’m talking about – you need skill between the ears.

“This lad has had a great temperament from when he first started and came here (to India) to make his debut (at Nagpur in 2006).

“He proved even then the priceless skill of knowing how to play. From the outset, he knew what he could do and what he couldn’t do – and he still has that skill today.

“He crafted a century. It wasn’t a flamboyant innings – he did the job that was necessary.”

Where Cook succeeded, Kevin Pietersen – among others – failed, for the second day in succession.

“I think Kevin will be very disappointed with both innings,” said Gooch.

“He trains very hard and practises very hard, and has played well in recent times.

“But like other players, he has to trust his ability.

“There is a certain way of playing over here. You’ve got to get yourself in and trust your defence – once you’ve done that you can look at what scoring options you’ve got.

“Obviously he wouldn’t be happy with his return in this match or with the way he played, but he is strong enough and a big enough character to carry on working on his game.

“I’m sure he’ll put it right.”

While some of England’s other batsmen have underperformed, Prior has done himself and his team proud already.

England’s wicketkeeper-batsman played against type, curbing his naturally attacking style to make sure Cook had the support he deserved.

“Matt has been a fantastic cricketer for England over the past few years,” said Gooch.

“He has played some great counter-attacking innings.

“He comes in at seven; he likes to take on the bowlers a bit and he likes to play an aggressive type of game.

“He tailored that general style to stay with Alastair. You still saw some shots, but he showed resolute defence – and that is the style of play that worked.

“If you saw how the Indian players played, they do attack but they also stick in there and don’t take chances. Matt did that, and showed he was adaptable.

“The skill of scoring runs is being adaptable; you can’t score the same way every time.

“You have to tailor the way you play to the conditions.

“That is what stands one player out from another.”

India remain favourites to go 1-0 up today, but even if they do Cook and Prior have made them work much harder than it seemed they might.

Gooch is reassured that England have shown their opponents they will not be pushovers in this four-Test series.

“India put 520 on the board and played very well. They are a very good side and exceptional at playing in these conditions,” he said. “We’ve shown that we can cope with those conditions as well.”

Cook’s 21st Test hundred took him past his mentor Gooch in the list of those to make the most for his country.

Ahead of him still are Geoff Boycott, Colin Cowdrey and Wally Hammond on 22 – and level are Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen. Cook and Nick Compton’s century opening stand continued yesterday morning, until the debutant faltered.

Compton had nonetheless eaten up 128 balls and lasted 45 overs for his 37 runs – a handy contribution in the context of the match – before he toppled over in defence against Zaheer Khan’s left-arm inswing, and fell lbw.

Jonathan Trott then appeared to be getting himself in, after his first-innings duck, and could hardly be criticised for edging behind on the forward-defence when Pragyan Ojha turned one sharply from a perfect line and length.

Pietersen has long disputed he has a weakness to left-arm spin, but fell to that variety for the 25th time in his career when Ojha followed up his first-innings success against him.

Bowled middle stump playing inside one that turned then, this time Pietersen got so far across to sweep that he was bowled round his legs by a delivery that took the off bail.

Ian Bell went in early afternoon, the first of two lbws in two deliveries for Yadav – thanks to reverse swing, with a ball almost 80 overs old.

Both Bell and then Samit Patel could have just as easily survived, each time the ball shaping in towards the outer limit of leg stump, with a suspicion of inside edge on the second occasion.

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