Alastair Cook

TNT Sports' Ashes coverage reached a new low after commentators mistakenly reacted live to a replay of a run-out during the fifth Test between Australia and England in Sydney.

There was plenty of action at the MCG on day one of the Boxing Day Ashes Test between Australia and England, but not everybody was happy about it

Sir Alastair Cook has pinpointed England's 'massive disconnect' with the County Championship as a major reason why Ben Stokes' side have failed to win back the Ashes.

Shoaib Bashir's Test career is far from over - but it is certainly on hold. England's No 1 spinner has been cast adrift in the very series for which he was groomed. It is every bit as bad as it looks.

England's inauspicious start to the Ashes was matched by TNT Sports, with the broadcaster's coverage branded 'a poor product' and 'travesty'. 

Both players have retired from Tests and Twenty20s but intend to stick around in one-day internationals until the 2027 tournament, when they will be 40 and 39 respectively.

Alastair Cook will be part of TNT Sports' coverage of the five-match series, which begins on November 21, with the broadcasters opting for a hybrid model combining punditry and commentary.

Since her retirement from tennis in 2022 at the age of 28, the former British No 1 has enjoyed a successful career as a presenter for both TNT and Sky Sports.

Michael Vaughan noted the reaction Down Under to the incident at the end of England's fourth Test draw with India, when Ben Stokes attempted to shake hands and end the game.

DAVID LLOYD: Bryson Carse impressed late on as England kept their hopes of overcoming India alive. India need 135 runs to win following a captivating conclusion to the fourth day.

In a moment that may yet draw the attention of the match referee, Mohammed Siraj and Ben Duckett clashed shoulders after the former dismissed his opponent for India's first wicket of the day.

Jacob Bethell, 21, made an impressive start to his Test career with three half-centuries against New Zealand before Christmas when Pope slipped down the order and took the wicketkeeping gloves.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Anderson has put himself forward for the Indian Premier League and the possibility of a last hurrah in a format he hasn't played for a decade.

AADAM PATEL: The former England captain, who played 161 Test matches and scored 12,472 runs was England's leading run-scorer in Test cricket until Joe Root surpassed him last week.

Joe Root was hailed as England's greatest ever batter last week, after surpassing Alastair Cook as his country's record run-scorer with a stunning innings of 262 against Pakistan,

Root, who made an unbeaten 176, reached stumps with 12,578 to his name - 106 ahead of Cook - as England gave themselves a chance of forcing an improbable win over Pakistan.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Root had begun the day on 32, needing another 39 to move past Cook and into fifth place on the all-time Test list, as England replied to Pakistan's mammoth 556.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Root combines the flair of Kevin Pietersen, the penchant for match-defining innings of Graham Gooch, and the hunger for runs of Cook. He's ticked all the boxes you want from a batsman.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Having equalled Alastair Cook's tally of 33 in the first innings, Root pulled clear in the second, becoming only the fourth player to score two century's at Lord's.

RICHARD GIBSON AT LORD'S: Root spent only the most fleeting of periods alongside Sir Alastair Cook at the top of the list, having drawn level in the first innings of this match.

PAUL NEWMAN: Cricket is a very different game now to the one I started covering as a Mail Spoirt correspondent and it is one I leave, after more than 17 years, in a more precarious state than ever.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Describing Jules as her 'truth bomb', Labour luvvie Kathy remembers on pal Rachel Johnson's podcast: 'I took Jules to Downing Street for a charity event, he was about 14.

Aussie cricket legend Mark Waugh has slammed Alastair Cook after he declared Ben Stokes' England team are 'not robots' following a brutal day in the field during the fifth Test versus India.

PAUL NEWMAN: Yes, taking on India in their own conditions is one of the toughest tasks in Test cricket. Even harder, it could be argued, than beating Australia in their backyard.

PAUL NEWMAN IN RANCHI: Bashir took four for 84, hardly surprisingly the best figures of his fledgling career, as India struggled to cope with the uneven bounce and England's newcomer.

PAUL NEWMAN AND RICHARD GIBSON IN RAJKOT: County umpires were placed on alert ahead of the 2024 season when TNT pundit Sir Alastair Cook discussed India's five-run penalty.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Before this series, Ben Duckett spoke about what he learned from his first winter with England in 2016-17 when he toured Bangladesh and India and really struggled.

Ravichandran Ashwin rubbished former England captain Sir Alastair Cook 's suggestion that he had intentionally encroached upon the protected area of the pitch.

PAUL NEWMAN IN RAJKOT: It says everything for that philosophy that the one draw so far under Stokes and Brendon McCullum is the result the captain regrets most.

Shoaib Bashir will make his international debut in England's second Test against India just days after arriving in the country following the visa chaos which ruled him out of the opener.

MATT HUGHES: With TNT only signing a five-year contract for India's home internationals last week there was insufficient time to assemble a punditry team before the start.

TNT Sports have pledged to bring in a full studio team for the final four Tests of his England's five-match series in India after fans complained about their coverage on Thursday.

Fast starts, keeping India's spinners quiet, runs on the board and picking the right team! Those are the secrets of touring success, as told to Mail Sport by England's heroes of 2012.

The headlines before the first Test have been dominated by Shoaib Bashir who was forced to return to England to resolve visa issues and will miss the first Test.

India is a fortress in Test cricket, as 16 winning series for the home side since that famous triumph proves, and England's challenge was made even harder on Sunday when they lost Harry Brook.

RICHARD GIBSON: For England's golden generation it represented the final frontier, the zenith of a relentless and ruthless journey that had taken in top-rank Test status.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY PAUL NEWMAN: Graeme Swann is almost wistful when asked how much he would have enjoyed playing in this turbo-charged age of Test cricket.

Alastair Cook, 38, started and finished his illustrious England career with hundreds against India 12 years apart, quitting the international scene in 2018. He has now retired fully from cricket.

As first revealed by Mail Sport last month, the 38-year-old has called time on one of the most distinguished careers in English cricket history.

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: In the end, if this is the end, it came down to a little shuffle and a little nudge and a little number. Ben Sanderson's delivery hopped off the surface.

It says everything about Alastair Cook that he has already played on for Essex far longer than he planned when he bade farewell to England with a fairytale century in his last Test.

EXCLUSIVE BY PAUL NEWMAN: The former England captain will almost certainly retire next week at the end of a county season he still hopes will bring another title for Essex.

Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook has been left 'surprised' and 'emotional' by the shock retirement of former team-mate Stuart Broad. The 37-year-old will walk away after 17 years at the top.

A Leeds barber accused Carey of failing to pay £30 for a haircut at his shop ahead of the third Ashes Test, only for it to later emerge that the 31-year-old had been mistaken for a teammate.

England legend Sir Alastair Cook says Marnus Labuschagne's poor form means Australia's chance at retaining the Ashes are 'significantly reduced' 

The hairdresser at centre of the 'barbergate' furore has clarified his story and pleaded with fans to stop making online reviews - as the identity of the player who did a runner remains a mystery.

England legend Sir Alastair Cook started the rumour on Test Match Special on Thursday, claiming Carey had a haircut at the same cash-only establishment as him before the Test.

'There's a time and place when it hits you,' Eoin Morgan said following his retirement. For England's greatest white-ball captain, that was June 20 at Amsterdam's Fashion Hotel.

PAUL NEWMAN AT CHELMSFORD: Jimmy Anderson emerged victorious from a high-quality battle with Alastair Cook in a productive first bowl of this Ashes summer.

Alastair Cook believes there is still room in the modern England side for the old-fashioned batting attributes that brought him almost 12,500 Test runs.

AADAM PATEL IN ABU DHABI: Pope's journey for England stuttered along, in and out of the eleven and without ever looking like fulfilling the expectations of greatness. Perhaps until this summer, at least.

When a highlights package of Emilio Gay's 145 for Northamptonshire against Surrey did the social-media rounds last week, David 'Bumble' Lloyd tweeted: 'I've seen enough.'

Brendon McCullum has given the clearest indication yet that England will take Zak Crawley and Alex Lees to Pakistan this winter.

DAVID LLOYD: England were totally outplayed by a highly impressive South Africa. It's nothing to do with the way England have been playing - Dean Elgar's side played with great discipline.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY PAUL NEWMAN: Bayliss, 59, is back in England for the first time since leaving after the 2019 Ashes, coaching London Spirit in the Hundred.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT TRENT BRIDGE: The chance came to Joe Root as if in slow motion, low and catchable at first slip. Yet somehow, he allowed the ball to cannon off his hands and drop.

WORLD OF CRICKET: It is getting hard to look any further than the man who took his game to new levels in making his 26th Test hundred in a winning cause against New Zealand on Sunday.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Root, who became the second England player after Alastair Cook to pass 10,000 Test runs, finished unbeaten on 115 as hosts knocked off target of 277.

Cook, England's leading Test run-scorer and a veteran of 19 years at first-class level, hit an unbeaten 102 in the dying embers of the match at Chelmsford after scoring 107 in the first innings.

Rob Key has refused to put a shelf life on the Test captaincy of Ben Stokes, who was recently appointed to succeed Joe Root in the crucial position for England.

Root stepped down last week, saying the job had taken a heavy toll on him recently, after dispiriting tours of Australia and the Caribbean capped a string of poor results.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: He finishes with a record that can be twisted this way or that, according to taste. That was the nature of Root's leadership: he hung around, winning some, losing some.

The 37-year-old went to his hundred from 262 balls with 11 boundaries in fading light at Chelmsford, but edged behind off Australia paceman Jackson Bird before adding to his total.

Root insisted there were 'many good things' for England to take away despite a series of batting collapses and Collingwood said he was 'amazed' the skipper's position was under scrutiny.

NASSER HUSSAIN: There's so much to like about Zak Crawley's batting. He has a fantastic tempo, which is what England have been looking for from an opener.

MARTIN SAMUEL - CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: It has been another mystifying week for English cricket. Andrew Strauss appears to have solved the only two problems it doesn't have.

The duo were brought in to provide expert opinions for the Ashes series in Australia, and Moeen appeared to defend Joe Root's ability as a leader while also taking a swipe at fellow pundit Cook.

This has to be rock bottom. This has to be the moment England draw a line in the sand and really mean it when they say they will prioritise Test cricket.

Having been set 271 to win, the tourists collapsed from a solid position at 68-0 to 124 all out in the space of an hour and a half, as Australia romped to a fourth victory in five Tests.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN SYDNEY: A stirring century from Bairstow lifted English spirits on the third day of the fourth Test, after he and Ben Stokes launched a fightback from the depths of 36 for four.

The England all-rounder appeared to take another dig at Alastair Cook on BT Sport punditry duty - as he hinted the former England captain would not make a good coach in the future due to a lack of empathy.

Sitting on the same sofa as pundits for BT Sport on the first day of the fourth Ashes Test, Moeen defended Joe Root's ability as a leader while taking a swipe about his former skipper Cook

DAVID LLOYD: England took two late wickets to earn a foothold in the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney. Sportsmail 's DAVID LLOYD offers his thoughts and insights on the day's play.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: After their miserable start to the Ashes, England will begin their fourth Test against Australia on Wednesday in Sydney.

The man who took both India and his native South Africa to the top of the Test rankings is making no secret of his desire to take over from Chris Silverwood once the axe inevitably falls.

If the tour continues its nose-dive trajectory, broader change is not off the cards but for now Root will overtake predecessor Sir Alastair Cook's record of 59 Tests at the helm.

When Joe Root back-cut Cameron Green for four from the first ball after the final drinks break, he became the highest-scoring England Test captain in history.

PAUL NEWMAN: The sight of Alastair Cook, as fit as ever as he approaches his 37th birthday, analysing England's latest debacle in the BT studio was a wistful reminder of Ashes glory past.

Mitchell Starc bowling Rory Burns from the first ball of the series set the tone and England's brittle batting line-up subsided with Australia's new captain Pat Cummins taking five for 38.