India vs England: Alastair Cook Miffed With Trent Bridge Pitch after Dull Draw

England captain Alastair Cook was critical of the Trent Bridge pitch after India batted the whole of Day 5 at Nottingham on Sunday to force a stalemate. On a wicket that suited India more than the hosts, the tourists' middle-order and tail scored easily on a slow and low track. England's much-vaunted pace attack was rendered ineffective as the tourists scored over 350 in both their innings, only the third time in their history outside the sub-continent. (Day 5 Highlights | Scorecard)

England all-rounder Stuart Broad had also slammed the Nottingham surface before the start of the match and Cook, who failed with the bat yet again but bagged his maiden Test wicket, said he did everything he could do as a captain but the utter blandness of the surface left very little to do at the end of the day. (Don't Regret Not Playing Ashwin at Trent Bridge, Says Dhoni)

Cook, usually politically correct, did not mince words after the Indian lower order slammed the door on England with gutsy half-centuries from debutant Stuart Binny and Bhuvneshwar Kumar:

"It's a tough job being a groundsman and he's admitted he's got it wrong but you have to adapt and we adapted well. As captain, you just had to try things and that's all you can do.

"When it was reversing and the ball was hard, it became a bit more even," Cook said.

Broad gave England a glimmer of hope on Sunday morning, when he removed overnight batsmen Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in overcast conditions. However, once the cloud cover cleared out, the pacers were yet again unable to extract anything from the surface.

England also made an interesting selection move by including 25-year-old left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan for the second Test and Cook revealed he was looking at spin as a second option at Lord's.

Kerrigan had made a forgettable debut against Australia at The Oval last August, where he bowled eight expensive overs without a wicket. Almost a year after his horror debut, the hosts have made the bold move of bringing Kerrigan back in against some of the best players of spin bowling in the world. That should tell a lot about the kind of pitches one could expect going ahead into the series.

However, Cook defended the decision and said Kerrigan was a tough cricketer, who would have learnt from his Oval experience.

"Simon had a tough experience but his record has turned out well. He might expect a bit more if he plays in four days' time; he could feature in the Test. He's a tough lad and he's come back from the experience at The Oval."