England’s top table

Bowlers wised up as they drew him on to the front foot, stopping him getting his head over the ball

was an omen of his end: only 23 runs in four innings, drawn forward by Trent Boult.

For more than four years, Cook’s captaincy was safe, sound and long-suffering. He never lost his rag with his bowlers or fielders, or even manifested disappointment with them: his flocks will be contented if he treats them like he did his players. His finest hours came in India, when England won the Test series for the first time since 1984/85, and at Trent Bridge in the Ashes of 2013, when he was effectively down to one bowler, James Anderson, as Brad Haddin and Australia’s tail-enders made a dash for the line. Even then his outward calm was unruffled.

A lovely part of his retirement is that Cook is going with the rest of his game intact. He has been England’s safest slip fielder this summer, even if that is not saying much by comparison with India’s KL Rahul. While England’s second slips – whether Dawid Malan or Jos Buttler or Joe Root – have clung on to half their chances, Cook has caught his share at first slip, including one voted the TMS “champagne moment” in the fourth Test at Southampton. He was happier still when taking two catches out of position, at deep midwicket at Trent Bridge and deep cover on Sunday, boyish in his delight.

And herein lies one superlative which can be accorded to Cook. No England captain has slotted back better into the ranks and rocked the boat less.

The proof is how he never stood on ceremony or seniority in the field. England’s most senior player was ready to stand at short leg for Moeen Ali, like the most junior pro, and take the blows – the finest and least egotistic of team men until he called it an end.