The former England captain, Alastair Cook, has brutally assessed the Indian side as ‘not great’ despite the latter’s 2-2 series result in the United Kingdom this English summer. He suggested that England should have won the series against the Shubman Gill-led side, who went on to lose the home series by a 0-2 margin against South Africa.

Cook made the point after another struggling day with the bat for England on the back of the opening day of the fourth Boxing Day Ashes 2025/26 Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where 20 wickets fell on the very first day. It wasn’t a great batting from the visitors, who had already lost the series and the urn by a margin of 0-3 in the first three clashes.

See Also: Watch: "Mahi bhai..."- MS Dhoni joins Salman Khan's birthday party as Bollywood actor turns 60

“I like Rob Key, I like McCullum. I like how they think, but I do think they have taken their eye off the ball for the biggest series. They’ve taken their eye off the ball for the biggest series. We talk about India, they lost. They drew India, and India got thumped by South Africa, so that the Indian side wasn’t great either. Reality has hit this Test team.” Cook expressed on TNT cricket.

Alastair Cook brutally criticizes India’s Test side

England had a lead of 2-1 in the five-match series against India before the fourth Test in Manchester, which ended in a draw, and the same result was forwarded to the fifth clash at the Kennington Oval. Even with an upper hand of 373, they collapsed to 367 from being 301/3 in the chase of 375 runs.

“There is a massive disconnect at this minute from this England side to county cricket. I do think that needs to be addressed. Because if you are banging out runs in county cricket or wickets in county cricket, there must be a path into the Test team. I think at the minute they risen, so I think that needs to be looked at. They have done a good job.” Cook claimed.

Eventually, England went on to win their first Ashes Test in Australia to end their 18-match winless streak as the two veterans, Joe Root and Ben Stokes, tasted their first victory of the red-ball game down under.