England’s men’s Test side have endured a horror run in Test cricket over the last 14 months. Ever since their series win in Sri Lanka at the start of 2021, the side has played 17 matches and won just one contest.

Following a 1-0 series defeat in the West Indies last month, Joe Root’s position as captain has come under serious scrutiny. Nonetheless, Root looked for the positives after a 10-wicket defeat at Grenada. “A difficult defeat to take because I really think there were a lot of positives to come from the way we played for the vast majority of this series,” Root said on social media after the end of the series.

Speaking to BT Sport, Root also said: “I thought the attitude throughout the whole [tour] has been brilliant. In that respect, we’ve definitely made big improvements.”

Cook stated that he was “bored” of all the talk of positives from the England dressing room, highlighting that it didn’t represent a “sense of reality”.

“I am a bit bored of all the positive chat, because I don’t think it was a sense of reality in that changing room,” Cook was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “All the noise was that ‘we’ve turned a corner and our attitude is brilliant’. Some of that stuff should have been a given.

“And it looked like a dig at the Australia tour [where England lost 4-0], that their attitude there wasn’t great. Actually, from watching, I never saw them throw the towel in. They just weren’t good enough to compete, and their batting under pressure folded, and the same thing happened in Grenada.

“Now that’s not slagging off his team. It’s just the reality they’re in… But some of the stuff coming out, with all this positivity. We’ve just lost again, we’ve won one in 17. That’s the reality, and it hurts. But if you own that, as a side, that could be a step forward.”