The Ashes: Alastair Cooks feels sorry Joe Root

Alastair Cook has condemned England’s rest and rotation policy, saying that they are “chasing their tails”.

Joe Root leads off an understrength England squad after their loss to England Picture: Getty Images

Alastair Cook has condemned England’s rest and rotation policy, saying that they are “chasing their tails” and that he feels sorry for Joe Root being deprived of his best players.

England were beaten heavily by New Zealand in the second Test at Edgbaston, with Root, the Test captain, unable to call on players returning from the Indian Premier League, including Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali. That followed a 3-1 series defeat by India in the winter.

Cook, Root’s predecessor, believes the decision to withdraw England’s best from the Test side has been proved incorrect, particularly given the full-strength white-ball squad named to face Sri Lanks in three T20s this week.

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“England have got themselves in a tough situation for the winter. It was going so well winning in Sri Lanka and then they are 1-0 up in India. To then rest and rotate players ever since that moment they’ve ended up chasing their tail – ending up with a fifth-choice wicketkeeper (James Bracey), an unbalanced side even though people were playing in the T20 Blast,” Cook said at a Chance to Shine and Yorkshire Tea event.

“You’ve got a Test captain who hasn’t been able to play his best side, yet we seem to be playing a full-strength side in the T20s against Sri Lanka. The decisions don’t look like they’ve been made correctly.

“Of course they’re trying their best to make the right decisions for the right reasons, but when you’re playing for England, you get judged on end results, so you’d have to say it hasn’t worked. I genuinely feel sorry for Joe Root because he hasn’t had his best players available. You can’t buy that experience of guys like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali.”

Buttler, however, defended the rest and rotation policy, saying that England matches would take precedence over the rescheduled Indian Premier League later this year. The 30-year-old will make his England comeback in the T20 series against Sri Lanka, which begins tomorrow (Wednesday), having been rested for the Test matches against New Zealand.

The Lancashire wicketkeeper- batsman has missed the team’s past five Tests, having flown home after the first Test with India in Chennai. England subsequently lost the final three matches of that series, and then against New Zealand suffered their first home series defeat since 2014.

“I think you do need an element of flexibility,” he said. “You have to find a balance. We like to plan and if you were just sucking it and seeing going into the biggest year of international cricket, you’d probably say that’s quite a lack of planning.”

England’s schedule this year is busier than any other international team’s, with 16 Test matches as well as limited-overs series against five different opponents and a T20 World Cup, and Buttler believes that if the schedule were pared back, it could mean less need for rotation of players.

“We play a hell of a lot and we understand it’s a short career and you want to be available and play as much as you can, but at certain times I just don’t think it is possible. Covid has complicated that,” he said.

“We’ve got to look after people and applaud the guys that are trying to be forward-thinking. Is it perfect? No, but I’d rather we look after our guys.”

Although Root has yet to be given his strongest squad this year, Buttler dismissed the accusation that white-ball cricket was still being prioritised over Test cricket.

Buttler will play in the T20s and ODIs against Sri Lanka and, given the T20 World Cup is in a few months’ time, he is likely to feature in the T20s against Pakistan. He could be rested for the ODIs before the five Tests against India, which finish in mid-September.

He and his wife, Louise, are expecting their second child in September, but it has not yet been decided what paternity leave he will take. The T20 World Cup starts in mid-October, and the England players in the Ashes squad will fly straight to Australia after its conclusion, meaning that he could be away from home for almost four months.