Cook ready for his next career chapter with Sachin’s haul ofTest runs in sight
Chris Stocks looks at what the future holds for Alastair Cook following his resignation of the Test captaincy
Now Alastair Cook has given up the Test captaincy the perceived wisdom is he will be able to concentrate solely on his batting and, it is hoped, set about re-writing the record books with renewed vigour.
Cook is already the most decorated England Test batsman of all time, his 30 centuries and 11,057 runs putting him way beyond anyone else from these shores. Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 runs is the ultimate benchmark. Even though the likes of Shane Warne and Ian Botham this week suggested Cook, at 32, has time to surpass that, it would still take some doing.
Speaking at Lord’s this week following his resignation, Cook admitted he hoped to play on for at least another four or five years. He will need to if he is to get close to Tendulkar. For now, though, the hope for Cook and England will be that he can find some kind of bounce in form. “Hopefully,” he said. “That will be nice. That was not the reason for it. It would be great if it did. I want to carry on playing for as long as I can.You are a long time retired.”
Andrew Strauss, Cook’s predecessor as captain and now England’s director of cricket, certainly thinks going back into the ranks will be a help.
“I personally think without the travails of the captaincy hanging over him it will freshen him up immensely,” said Strauss. “It’s worth mentioning he’s only 32. He’s potentially got three or four years left in him at least and if he can just go out there and concentrate on his game and be unshackled, no-one needs to talk about what a quality player he is.”
The fact is Cook’s form as captain was not far off what it was before he took on the job in late 2012. Leading the team, his Test average was 44.57. That stood at 47.84 before. Even at the end, when the burden of leading England took its toll, Cook’s return with the bat remained stable. Since the start of last summer he has scored 1,093 runs in 14 Tests at 45.54.
Any upturn in form then would be a bonus and there are indications that perhaps Cook will benefit from a lightening of the leadership load that became unbearable in his last series as captain in India late last year.
“I pretty much average the same when I was captain or wasn’t captain,” said Cook. “It will probably give me a bit more time to dedicate to it [batting]. Little things in India, I was more worried about what was happening with other stuff than I was about my batting – that’s the first time that’s ever happened to me.
“I am excited to go back into the ranks and play some cricket with different pressure.”
Yet it will be a different role now for Cook in the England dressing room, one that at first he admits might be strange. “I think maybe the first day I walk back in will be different, but I have gone back into the Essex dressing room for four or five years as an England captain and haven’t captained that side,” he said.
“You’ll have to ask Tendo [Ryan ten Doeschate] or James Foster if I have been a help or a hindrance. It certainly won’t be an issue from my side.
“All I do know is there is a good
If he can maintain the hunger and form that has sustained him in international cricket for the past 11 years then England will be grateful
group of strong, young cricketers in that team who will drive England forward again and I hope to be part of it in a slightly different role.”
One of Cook’s roles, he hopes, will be to act as a mentor to Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings, the two young top-order batsmen who emerged on that otherwise painful tour of India.
“Hopefully I can dedicate a little more time to that as well,” he said. “As a captain, you do try to offer as much advice as you can, but you do get pulled in different directions. Toporder batting is something we haven’t done as well as we’d have liked to do over the last couple of years. We’ve certainly found two very, very good players there – they have got something special about them.”
Before he has a chance to play a new role in the England set-up, Cook will return to Essex, where he will play eight County Championship games
before England’s Test summer begins in July. His county, playing in Division One for the first time in seven years following promotion, will need Cook’s runs if they are to mount a credible bid for survival. It should provide the opener with a decent challenge before the South Africa series.
Runs are never guaranteed for any batsman at international level and several former captains have struggled after going back into the ranks. Ricky Ponting for example played 16 more Tests after giving up the Australia captaincy in 2011. In that period, he averaged just 37.59, way down on his career average of 51.85.
Graham Gooch, Cook’s mentor at Essex, also tailed off shortly after giving up the captaincy midway through the 1993 Ashes series. He played 13 more Tests and although he started off with two half-centuries and a double hundred in his first two Tests back in the ranks, there was just one 50-plus score after that.
Cook, of course, is much younger now than both of those great batsmen were when they gave up the top job – Gooch was 40, Ponting 36. And in Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and David Gower there are three players who all had decent records relative to their overall career after relinquishing the England captaincy.
Cook, though, will hope his final chapter is even better. If he can maintain the hunger and form that has sustained him in international cricket for the past 11 years then England will be grateful.You never know, Tendulkar’s record might even become a realistic target in the coming years.
But let’s just see how the summer goes first before making any grand predictions.