Watch England captain Alastair Cook preview the fourth Investec Test against India
By Dominic Farrell
England captain Alastair Cook is keen not to attach took much significance to victory last time out on the eve of the fourth Investec Test against India at Emirates Old Trafford.
Cook’s side excelled in all departments as they saw off the tourists by 266 runs at the Ageas Bowl last week, levelling the five-match series at one-apiece.
The emphatic manner in which England ended a barren run in the Test arena, with new faces such as Gary Ballance and Moeen Ali starring alongside established figures such as Cook, James Anderson and Ian Bell, left many observers purring.
But Cook knows from experience that fortunes are fickle at the highest level and is firmly focused on the task at hand in Manchester.
“By winning the game and scoring some runs we’ve taken a step forward as a side but we’re very clear that it’s just one game,” he told his pre-match press conference.
“It was such a nice feeling for the side - we haven’t won for a while - but I don’t know about ‘second phases’ and all that kind of stuff.
“It was just a good game for every single guy who played. We know what’s gone is gone.”
Although a cursory glance at the scorecard might suggest they did not exist, Cook was pleased with how England held their nerve during the tricky phases of play at Southampton, displaying a composure he identified as being elusive earlier in the summer.
Cook said: “When you win a game by such a big margin you forget the tight moments in it, the moments when it could have turned like 240 for two in that last half an hour on day one.
“Belly and Gaz fought really hard to get through that second new ball, because if you lose three wickets then that whole day of good work goes out of the window. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing this summer.”
Anderson heads into his home Test having scooped the man-of-the-match award on the south coast.
The Lancashire seamer also had a weight lifted from his shoulders over recent days, after the Interntional Cricket Council found him not guilty of breaching its Code of Conduct during an alleged incident with India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja during the first Test at Trent Bridge.
The 32-year-old is just 12 shy of Sir Ian Botham at the top of England's all-time Test wicket list - statistics that Cook feels do Anderson absolute justice.
“He’s the best English bowler I’ve seen,” he said. “The best by quite considerable margins for his skill of being able to control that ball.
“He’s not blessed with absolutely express pace, so to be able to control that ball and find a method like in Australia in 2010, where it didn’t swing that much but he took his wickets at under 30.
“I think he’s been outstanding and he’s been backed up by Broady (Stuart Broad). I saw those two have take 500 wickets when they’ve played together.
“Having those two bowling a lot of overs together has been great for this England side over the last few years.”
Series Facts – Fourth Investec Test, Emirates Old Trafford
England are unbeaten in eight Test matches at Old Trafford (W6 D2).
India have been involved in eight previous Test matches at Old Trafford against England; they have never won there (D5 L3).
England have only lost two of their last 12 Test matches against India (W7 D3).
Ian Bell needs 19 runs to become the 7th highest run-scorer at Old Trafford in Tests. He has scored 550 runs at the venue so far.
Three England’s six highest innings totals at Old Trafford have come against India.
India’s players have reached 50 on 15 different occasions in this series so far, but have only converted two of these into centuries (Vijay and Rahane).
Gary Ballance has a batting average of 80.4 in this Test series; the best of any player to have had at least two innings.
Virat Kohli has gone six Test innings without a half century; he recorded five in his nine innings immediately before this run.
Cheteshwar Pujara needs 160 runs to reach 2000 in the Test arena.
England have scored 500+ runs in a single innings just twice in their last 40 attempts in Test cricket; one of those coming in the most recent Test Match at the AGEAS Bowl.
MS Dhoni has a play and miss percentage of 13.9% in this series; no player has a higher failure rate (min 200 balls faced).
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has the best average of anyone to have bowled at least 10 overs in this Test series (23).
The top five players for highest percentage of balls left alone in this series all play for India (Vijay 35.5%, Kohli 32%, Pujara 30.6%, Dhoni 29.6% and Dhawan 29.4%).