All is not well in England cricket. After the on-field humiliation in the ongoing Ashes Test series against Australia, the off-field brawls seemed to have been a major talking point in country’s cricket. Former England captain Alastair Cook and Moeen Ali exchanged heated conversations on British television.
The two were involved in the guest panel of BT Sports, the official broadcaster of Ashes in England. During the show, Ali was seen taking a dig at Cook's captaincy methods. The heated conversation took place during the coverage of the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney, played between Australia and South Africa.
Captaincy impacting in a negative way
During the show, Ali compared Cook's captaincy with current captain Joe Root’s style of leadership and how it has impacted the team in a negative way.
“Rooty has more of an emotional attachment with the players, he spends more time with the players,” the right-arm spinner said.
Cook did not waste much time in replying, “Are you just criticising my captaincy?”
Ali followed that with a brief response, “I am a little bit, yeah.
“They're both very different, I did do better with the bat under Cooky but with the ball, I was better with Rooty,” Ali said.
The conversation turned into a heated one when Cook fired back, “So you might criticise me but I’ve never dropped you, how many times did Rooty drop you?”
The verbal exchanges went on to continue when Ali came up with his next response, “That’s true but you also batted me from 1 to 9 in my first year of international cricket.”
Speaking about batting mindset
The heated debate then appeared to have taken a toll on Cook as he spoke about Ali's batting mentality,
“I was giving you a chance, I couldn’t work whether you were a tail-ender or an opening batsman so I just to find the perfect role,” Cook opined.
The 34-year-old Ali then went back to Root and spoke about him and the first time he had a heated debate with the former skipper, “Just to go back to my point, Rooty was a little bit more involved with the players, in my opinion.
“Not that Cooky doesn’t care but I think Rooty is a bit more ‘arm over the shoulder’ kind of guy.”
Cook who led England to their last Ashes triumph in 2015 wasn’t impressed with the spinner’s comments and replied, “I’m not sure I will take this anymore, I've just come back from a nice holiday and I’ve walked straight into Moeen Ali off his long run.”
Australia are in a commanding position in the fourth Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) as they try to whitewash England for the third time in 15 years. Aussies led by Pat Cummins have already secured the Ashes by taking a 3-0 lead in the series.
