Alastair Cook calls for change after England lose series-opener to West Indies – ‘Something has to give’

England posted a respectable target of 326 in Antigua but were undone by some supreme batting, particularly from Shai Hope who scored 109 runs from 83 balls to clinch a four-wicket victory for the hosts with just seven balls to spare.

It was not the way the visitors would have been looking to bounce back from a disappointing World Cup campaign that saw them exit in the group stage but Cook backed England to improve through the series.

“England were poor with the ball,” Cook said on TNT Sports. “Whether we can put this down to a lack of match practice [is unclear].

“No warm-up games, it doesn’t matter how many scenarios you do, a few of the lads were out in Abu Dhabi, they’ve had some scenario practice but under pressure today, they looked rusty.

“They were poor with the new ball new ball. In particular Sam Curran, he’s normally that banker, the guy under pressure, certainly in T20 cricket he’s been so good at the death but he was missing his mark by a long way.

“I expect England to get better but you can’t just keep going into series without match practice.

“I know the schedule is really hard and other things but something has to give to give the players a better chance to perform straight away.

“So England were poor [but] England will get better through that experience.”

Curran, a left-arm seamer, was hit for 98 runs from 9.5 overs and was the only English bowler who failed to take a single wicket, and Cook said England captain Jos Buttler would have been better saving some of his spinners for the end.

“A slight tactical thing actually, the spinners were bowled out quite early,” Cook added. “I wonder whether now in hindsight they could have held the spinners back a little bit and bowled a few more of the seamers in the middle overs.

“You saw towards the end the spin, of course it can go for sixes, West Indies are dangerous hitters, but Jos kind of backed himself into a corner by bowling his spinners out and not giving Will Jacks a go in the middle overs.

“Not saying he’s going to bowl at the death but he could have bowled a few overs in the middle which would have then allowed a bit more flexibility towards the end so if a bowler does get clouted like Sam Curran did, it could have given Jos another option.”

The three-match ODI series continues on Wednesday at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, live on TNT Sports.