Cook considered retirement during Ashes
England batsman Alastair Cook has revealed contemplating retirement following his struggles in the Ashes 2017-18, but the epic knock at Melbourne will give him confidence to carry on.
Cook’s struggles in the Ashes were quite evident with the senior England batsman failing to score 40 or more on each of the occasions barring one — at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when he carried his bat for a superlative 244 not out.
The left-hander rode on lifelines by Australia and aided by a pitch that was eventually rated ‘poor’ by the ICC to put up a score strong enough to keep the media and critics at bay who had been speculating on his future.
The 33-year-old has acknowledged that he felt being under pressure and even mulled over retirement.
“To bat as badly as I did for pretty much two months and then for 10 hours bat as well as I’ve ever done was quite strange. But it showed I’ve still got it. There were some dark moments on that tour when I could have said “I don’t need this anymore” and just jacked it in. But to keep going and then deliver like that proved I’ve got something,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“You always doubt yourself. That’s a natural thing. It doesn’t get any easier the more you play. When a slightly older player isn’t scoring many runs it’s an easy story to write. Is he going to give up? Is he thinking about it?”
“I questioned myself when it got tough. Am I still good enough to play at the real elite level? I knew the hunger hadn’t gone but was it all worth it? Melbourne was as hard as it could be mentally because I was thinking ‘if I get another couple of low scores things are really going to get hard for me.’ So to bat the way I did…” Cook added.
After winning the five-match ODI series 3-2, England will now take on New Zealand in a twomatch Test series starting March 22. The first Test will be at the Eden Park in Auckland.
MUMBAI: