Australia vs England Ashes Series: Batting great Alastair Cook voiced concerns over England's ongoing Ashes challenge, which the Three Lions are trailing by 0-3, describing their recently concluded 2-2 draw with India as a less-than-convincing performance against a team that "weren't great".
The five-match series against India ended in a 2-2 draw earlier this year. It was Gill's first assignment as Test captain and the young opener finished the series with 754 runs, including four centuries.
Cook's scathing examination suggests that England's recent results have papered over cracks in their game, facilitating a misleading sense of momentum.
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"They started off with a bang, Key, McCullum and Stokes. I think McCullum won his first eight out of 10 games or something the first year. Since then, it's gone downhill," Cook said on the opening day of the ongoing Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
"This year I think their percentage of wins is just above 30 per cent, so it's a bit of a downward trend....I like Rob Key, I like McCullum, I like how they think, but I do think they've, this last little bit, they have taken our eye off the ball for the bigger series."
Mentioning the five-Test series against India, Cook said, "... they were talking about India, they lost, they drew India and India just got thumped by South Africa. So that Indian side wasn't a great Indian side either."
"So actually it's a reality, it's just hit this England Test team and now they're going to decide how they want to play with what players afterwards," he added.
England have faced defeats in the first three Tests of the Ashes against Australia, going down by eight wickets in Perth and Brisbane and by 82 runs at Adelaide. England are currently chasing 175 to triumph in the fourth Test on day two in Melbourne.