Bopara says Cook can still make impact in Twenty20

Published on Friday 17 February 2012 02:50

Ravi Bopara sees it as near inevitable that England’s one-day international captain Alastair Cook will soon be adding to the four Twenty20 caps he has to his name to date.

Cook is already omitted from the Twenty20 squad to play Pakistan after the ongoing one-day international series in Dubai has concluded, and is without an appearance for his country in the shortest format since 2009.

Yet Pakistan could be forgiven a sigh of relief that the man responsible for back-to-back hundreds to take England into a 2-0 lead with two to play will not be given the chance here to further demonstrate his increasingly renowned adaptability.

Cook has already made a clutch of respected pundits look very silly for insisting he could not fine-tune his prolific, no-frills Test batting to ODI cricket.

There was an ‘expert’ chorus of disapproval when he was chosen to succeed Andrew Strauss as England’s ODI captain last summer, the consensus being that the opener was unable to score quickly enough in the World Cup discipline. He has responded with three hundreds to date and a spiralling average and strike rate which has put all his team-mates in the shade.

Bopara, who has shared important stands with Cook in England’s two victories in Abu Dhabi and has known and batted with his Essex team-mate for more than a decade, is not among those who need convincing.

“He’s someone I’ve seen adapt so much over his career so far,” said Bopara, in fine form himself with two half-centuries in his last two ODI innings. “I’ve played with him since I was 14, 15 – and with the amount he’s changed over the years, there’s no reason why he can’t change and become that Twenty20 player as well.”

“I’ve seen him play some class Twenty20 knocks for Essex,” he said. “There’s no reason he can’t do it for England. He’s someone I’ve seen adapt more than anyone in my whole career.”

Cook’s ODI effectiveness can surely not be up for debate much longer, after he became only the tenth England batsman to hit successive hundreds – and the first as captain.

Cook’s second hundred on Wednesday was one of several similarities between England’s two wins here against Pakistan, who so thoroughly outplayed them to win the Test series 3-0.

Bopara’s 50 and fast bowler Steven Finn’s identical figures of four for 34 in each match provided more uncanny echoes of what had gone two days before.

Bopara is hugely impressed with Finn. “I’ve never known a bowler to go for such a low economy rate and take wickets the way he has,” he said. “He’s improved so much over the last 12 months, and good on him. He deserves it.”

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