Alastair Cook says he deserved to be axed by selectors

After a series of low scores, Alastair Cook finally returned to his formidable self as the opener crushed Australia’s hopes of whitewashing the Englishmen in the five-Test series. The former captain notched up an unbeaten 244 to put the tourists 164 runs ahead of Australia by the end of Day 3.

The Ashes has already been bagged by Australia after England lost the opening three Tests, with Cook contributing just 83 runs in six innings. But he turned things around with his towering double-century at the MCG. After returning unbeaten on 244 at the end of day 3, the former England captain said that the selectors were entitled to drop him over his poor form — before his comeback in the form of a double-century put England in a winning position in the fourth Ashes Test.

It was very frustrating

The 33-year-old said he would have understood being dropped, but he bounced back in the Boxing Day Test to present his team with a chance of victory. “(They) would have been entitled just because I literally hadn’t scored a run since Edgbaston,” Cook said while speaking to the reporters in Melbourne.

“I always feel I’ve got the backing of the selectors but you’ve still got to deliver the goods, I hadn’t done that on this tour. It was very frustrating,” he further added.

Cook had been at the crease for 634 minutes and faced 409 balls to deny the Australians despite being dropped twice on 66 and 153 by Steve Smith. And the veteran broke multiple records in the process. He surpassed the highest score by a visiting batsman in a Melbourne Test, bettering the 208 by West Indian great Viv Richards in 1984. He earlier went past Wally Hammond’s 200 set back in 1928 as the highest Test score at the MCG by an Englishman.

Cook’s fifth double-century also catapulted him above West Indian Brian Lara to become the sixth highest run-getter in Test cricket with 11,956.

“It meant a lot last night and then today I was quite proud that I managed to back it up. After all the emotion came out yesterday, to get a real big one for the team was really important…It’s just a shame it’s three or four weeks too late, I’ll have to live with that for a long time but it’s nice to score a few.”

England as a team had various off the field issues to deal with apart from the on-field misery as well. However, the team was very supportive of Cook during his barren run before posting his 32nd Test century in his 151st Test match.

“The team has been fantastic. Obviously, we’ve had an interesting journey on this tour with a lot of things going on. But we’ve stuck together really well as a side and as a group of players and we’ve put in three good days of performance here and let’s hope we can do the same on day four tomorrow,” Cook stated.

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