We played too many bad shots: Alastair Cook

England Test skipper Alastair Cook blamed bad shot selection as the reason for the team’s 75-run defeat against Pakistan in the first Test match at Lord’s on Sunday. Chasing 283 to win, the left-arm pacer Rahat Ali got rid of the top-order and leg-spinner Yasir Shah cleaned up the middle-order.

“We are striving to become the best side we can be. I think naive is the word. You can play bad shots but we played too many bad shots. I don’t think we got our angles right,” the England skipper said.

He said that the Pakistan’s celebration was not pleasant and England will use that as a motivation to get better for the next Test. “We will use that (Pakistan’s celebration) as motivation and get better,” he pointed out.

He slyly insisted that inexperience was one of the reasons for the loss as they didn’t have the services of the spearhead of pace bowling James Anderson, as well as the all-round abilities of Ben Stokes. “Some of us have got a bit more experience. In general, this is quite an inexperienced side we played and some of that showed,” he said.

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In India’s last tour to England, India had also beaten England at Lord’s but the hosts came back to win the series. He expects the same from the team. “It’s not all doom and gloom and we have to try and improve as a side. If it was easier and easy cricket, you guys (journalists) would be doing it. Some of the guys here have been doing it,” he said with a hint of a smile but ensuring it wasn’t derogatory in any manner.

“Of course, it’s hard. We’ve got a challenge ahead of ourselves now and we have to work really hard as a team. We have to stick together which we will do. We lost heavily to Australia here and bounced back really quickly,” the 31-year old added.

The second Test begins at Old Trafford in Manchester on Friday.