FINALLY COOKY CRUMBLES UNDER PRESSURE
Neither surprising nor unexpected,Alastair Cook had given us a hint about his future as captain by saying that Joe is ready to captain England.After 4-0 defeat in India,very few might have expected Alastair Cook to lead the side throughout the English summer and eventually in Australia in winter.
2nd most test wins as England Captain and most test defeats as England Captain,it pretty much sums up Alastair Cook's interesting captaincy stint of 4 years.He first captained England in Bangladesh in 2010 when Andrew Strauss was rested.He scored 2 hundreds in 2 matches as captain.However,Alastair Cook became full time captain when Andrew Strauss retired from international cricket in august 2012,And the first assignment he had was to lead his side in India.Players like Jonathan Trott,Kevin Pietersen,,Matt Prior,James Anderson,Greame Swann led by Alastair Cook delivered England's first series win in India after 28 long years.It didn't come easy.After a heavy defeat at Ahmedabad,England came strongly to win in Mumbai and Kolkata with Alastair Cook scoring 562 runs at an average of 80.It couldn't have been a better start for him.
England beat Australia 3-0 in 2013 and then came the ashes in Australia.Everyone expected England to retain the urn,but they were completely blown away by the sheer pace of Mitchell Johnson and some flamboyant cricket.England were whitewashed.There were already some doubts raised over Cook's captaincy.Then England lost to Sri Lanka to start their home summer.If this wasn't enough,they even lost to India at Lord's.To add to that,in all this chaos,Cook's form with the bat had dipped dramatically.Later in 2014,he was sacked as England's ODI captain just before the world cup.Unsurprisingly,England had a nightmare at the World Cup under new captain.England went to West Indies a month before the Ashes and Cook got a test century after nearly 2 years.Then came the Ashes 2015 and this time,everyone was betting on Australia.Cook again came over the adversity and won the ashes 3-2.In early 2016,England won in South Africa too.Again Cook's contributions with the bat weren't noticable but he was leading his side to test victories.
The downfall started in the home summer of 2016.England beat Sri Lanka swiftly.But they couldn't win the series against Pakistan.England were expected to win but Pakistan played some good brand of cricket to draw the series 2-2.In the winter of 2016,England were scheduled to tour Bangladesh for 2 tests and then India for 5 tests.England found it really tough in Bangladesh as they suffered their first ever test defeat to Bangladesh.By the time they reached India,there were doubts raised over England's ability to play spin.As expected,India won the series 4-0.Though Cook scored a decent amount of runs,he was consistently getting out in a similar fashion.
Nasser Hussain once said that Cook is a very dangerous man to write off.Because Cook was never a tactical genius but his determination and the will to win made him a tougher competitor.Whenever Cook got runs up front,England also did well under his captaincy when you think of India-2012,Ashes-2013.And whenever Cook failed with the bat,he also struggled with the captaincy.
But it couldn't have been a better time for him to leave and hand it over to Joe Root.England have 7 tests at home in 2017 and then the all important ashes in winter.Joe now will have 7 tests to warm up as captain and the players will also have time to adjust to new captain and his style.I am sure Cook's services as batsman would surely help England in a big way.
England beat Australia 3-0 in 2013 and then came the ashes in Australia.Everyone expected England to retain the urn,but they were completely blown away by the sheer pace of Mitchell Johnson and some flamboyant cricket.England were whitewashed.There were already some doubts raised over Cook's captaincy.Then England lost to Sri Lanka to start their home summer.If this wasn't enough,they even lost to India at Lord's.To add to that,in all this chaos,Cook's form with the bat had dipped dramatically.Later in 2014,he was sacked as England's ODI captain just before the world cup.Unsurprisingly,England had a nightmare at the World Cup under new captain.England went to West Indies a month before the Ashes and Cook got a test century after nearly 2 years.Then came the Ashes 2015 and this time,everyone was betting on Australia.Cook again came over the adversity and won the ashes 3-2.In early 2016,England won in South Africa too.Again Cook's contributions with the bat weren't noticable but he was leading his side to test victories.
The downfall started in the home summer of 2016.England beat Sri Lanka swiftly.But they couldn't win the series against Pakistan.England were expected to win but Pakistan played some good brand of cricket to draw the series 2-2.In the winter of 2016,England were scheduled to tour Bangladesh for 2 tests and then India for 5 tests.England found it really tough in Bangladesh as they suffered their first ever test defeat to Bangladesh.By the time they reached India,there were doubts raised over England's ability to play spin.As expected,India won the series 4-0.Though Cook scored a decent amount of runs,he was consistently getting out in a similar fashion.
Nasser Hussain once said that Cook is a very dangerous man to write off.Because Cook was never a tactical genius but his determination and the will to win made him a tougher competitor.Whenever Cook got runs up front,England also did well under his captaincy when you think of India-2012,Ashes-2013.And whenever Cook failed with the bat,he also struggled with the captaincy.
But it couldn't have been a better time for him to leave and hand it over to Joe Root.England have 7 tests at home in 2017 and then the all important ashes in winter.Joe now will have 7 tests to warm up as captain and the players will also have time to adjust to new captain and his style.I am sure Cook's services as batsman would surely help England in a big way.
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