Case for the defence: Alastair Cook defends blocking tactics after England capitulate to India

GOTCHA: India's Mohammed Shami, left, celebrates the dismissal of England's Joe Root, right, on the last day in Visakhapatnam. Picture: AP/Aijaz Rahi.

Alastair Cook has defended England's '˜blockathon' tactics which fell short against India and have attracted criticism from opposite number Virat Kohli.

The England captain confirmed a management decision to cut out any collective intent to chase a highly improbable national record target of 405 in Vizag, and simply concentrate on trying to save the second Test.

Ultimately, England were a long way from achieving either – bowled out for 158 soon after lunch on the final day to lose by 246 runs and go 1-0 down in the five-match series.

England’s approach suited Cook and opening partner Haseeb Hameed in their stand of 75 in more than 50 overs.

ALASTAIR COOK: Believes England can battle back as they did against India four years ago. Picture: AP/PA.

But others in a line-up of natural strokemakers were playing against type, and England lost all 10 wickets for 83 runs as off-spinners Ravi Ashwin and Jayant Yadav struck three times each.

“We set our stall out pretty clearly from the start of that innings that we wanted to take it as deep as possible,” said Cook, encouraged into all-out defence by last year’s Delhi Test in which South Africa were all out for 143 in 143.1 overs.

“We saw in one game South Africa played 140-odd overs – if we’d got to 150-odd overs we could have saved the game.

“Often in those circumstances, you say ‘just play and see where we end up’ – but we made a conscious effort to go that way.”