Cook and Pietersen put England ahead

I'm very happy with the proceedings. Day 2 belonged to England. India started the day at 266/6. England must be happy to wrap their innings in 61 runs. England then put on 178 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. 

Compton was disappointing again. I know he is a new fellow, but it's disheartening to see all his hard work go waste. He played 90 deliveries but scored only 29 runs. Compare this to Kevin Pietersen's score, 62 off 85. If Compton does the hard work and stays there for so long, he must do himself justice by scoring more runs. This kind of batting is only useful when you are trying to save a Test, like the 1st Test. If Compton doesn't improve his strike rate, he should be dropped. 

Captain Cook lead from the front once again. He is batting on 87. What an amazing batsman he has become. I've followed his career from the beginning and seen him evolve. He had potential from the beginning. He scored 60 and 104* in his debut Test against India at Nagpur. But he has come a long way. Calm and collected from the very beginning, his technique and judgement have definitely improved. 

At what age a player should be taken into the side is very controversial. Alastair Cook was 21 when he debuted, James Anderson 20. Both of them are fine players of this era. But there have also been ones like Graeme Swann who made their way into the team at a much later age. There is hardly anyone more consistent than Swann in world cricket. So I reckon different ages work for different players. Some are best suited to toughening themselves in domestic cricket for years, while others excel more in the challenging and exciting environment International cricket provides, though it comes with a lot of pressure.

 

Back to the current game. I'm especially happy because Kevin Pietersen scored runs today. He is the best entertainer and it's been a while we have seen him perform on the cricket field, because he did attempt to show us he can do the gangnam style dance better than Chris Gayle during his stint in the TV studio. Though I think Pietersen is better suited to cricket. He must be the only one who played International cricket after a cricket TV studio or commentary appearance. All others, including Flintoff retired after doing it. But I'm not satisfied. We are yet to see KP perform under pressure in Tests.

Sanya Batra for DieHard Cricket Fans

Sanya is a half-Indian, half-English girl who supports England despite having grown up in India. She owns England Cricket Blog.