Birmingham, August 12: Powered by Alastair Cook’s 294, England’s first innings crossed the 700 mark as the hosts took an enviable 486-run against the struggling Indians at Edgbaston. At the end of Day 3, former Indian all-rounder and reputed commentator Ravi Shastri spoke to www.bcci.tv about Cook’s mammoth innings and India’s performance.

Excerpts from the interview:

Alastair Cook was unlucky to get out six runs short of what would have been an excellent triple-century.

Yes, it’s a remarkable achievement. He is just a run-machine; for someone who is 26 years of age, he’s already reached 6000 runs. He has scored more runs than any other player in Test cricket in the last decade. He’s a terrific find for England; he’s got all the qualities needed for getting big runs. He‘s got concentration, he’s got determination, he has got an unflappable temperament and he plays within his means. He doesn’t try anything extravagant; he just goes about his business in a very professional manner. Yes, [he was] unfortunate to miss a triple hundred; getting so close, he should have got it.

What are your thoughts on Amit Mishra’s performance?

He is too slow in the air. On this kind of pitch there was enough there for the spinners as you saw later when [Kevin] Pietersen and [Graeme] Swann were bowling. He could have got a few more wickets.

Virender Sehwag’s early dismissal shows the opener is clearly short of match practice.

This goes to show that this is a big game, cricket. When you go under the knife, you are injured, you come back without having played too much match practice - it shows up [in your game]. It was a loose shot. Sehwag’s the kind of player, you can’t go too hard at him because he wins you matches, he plays in that fashion. What one would have hoped for was for him to respect the conditions and the state of the match. If he had taken his time a little bit, even if it was for a couple of overs, three overs, then if he wanted [he could] play his shots and he could have gone for it.

With six sessions to go in this Test, will the Indian batsmen finally show some fight?

If they can push this Test match beyond lunch on the fifth day, I think they have done well. At least they will have to show some fight to achieve that. But it looks difficult because they are against an in-form attack; the pace bowlers have done the damage in the series but [on Day 4] I think [Graeme] Swann also will be part of the mix. He could be amongst the wickets or at least he could bowl at one end and keep the pressure going.