A mammoth task lies ahead of England as they prepare to take on South Africa in their own backyard. South Africa might have been decimated by India recently, but that doesn’t make Cook over optimistic about England’s chances in South Africa. After a disappointing series loss to Pakistan in UAE, Cook is ready to take on the Proteas.
“It would mean a huge amount to beat South Africa,” Cook said. “That is the challenge we’ve got ahead of us. Reflecting back to Pakistan, something inside of me says that was an opportunity that we couldn’t quite take. I wonder if this is an opportunity we can take. “The 2-0 in Pakistan hurts me quite a lot as I don’t feel we were that far off. But now we’ve got another chance to win away from home.”
Cook however admitted that England’s batting was pretty unstable at the moment. “We haven’t quite got a settled top seven, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “But with Gary Ballance coming back, and Nick Compton coming back, they’ve had a taste of it before, and it’s a real opportunity for people to stake their claim.”
When asked if flamboyant opener Alex Hales would be making his test debut in the first test, Cook did not give a straight forward reply. “You can’t guarantee anyone a first-Test place when you are sitting in a hotel,” said Cook. “But judging by the way the selection has gone he’s got a great opportunity. We’ve seen in county cricket that he can go on a run and be destructive. He will have experienced a lot, from not scoring too many runs in the Australia one-day series to really bouncing back and leading in the one-dayers in the UAE.”