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Sport360° view: England selectors must sort out World Cup captaincy issue
It’s been one of those seasons where Alastair Cook has held centre stage for all the wrong reasons. A poor run of form and a series of defeats that began with the Ashes debacle in Australia made it worse for the England captain.
Cook got back at his critics for a brief while by winning the Test ser-ies against India but the brickbats returned after England’s 3-1 loss in the one-day series. The huge margin of defeats – by nine wickets, six wickets and 133 runs – sparked a raging debate whether Cook was the right man to lead England in the 2015 World Cup.
The left-handed batsman’s leadership record has been abysmal in the 14 one-dayers he has led this year. He won just five games, lost nine with series defeats in Australia and at home to Sri Lanka and India.
The only time England did well was when Cook decided to sit out with Stuart Broad leading the side to a 3-2 series win in West Indies.
Cook is adamant that he can turn things around, like he did in the Tests. But former England captain Michael Vaughan believes handing Cook the World Cup reins will be disastrous because he plays the one-dayers with a Test match mindset whereas the rest of the world plays it with a Twenty20 vision. Vaughan’s views were endorsed by Cook’s former team-mate and friend Graeme Swann, who blamed the captain for England’s old-fashioned approach in the one-dayers.
In Cook’s defence, it must be said, he was quite successful in ending his bad form by making subtle changes to his batting during the Test series against India.
Having gained that confidence, Cook believes he can pull it off in the one-dayers too. An in-form Cook will be beneficial to England as he can hold the innings together while the rest can bat around him.
A grey area, however, is his captaincy. Can he be as enterprising as a Mahendra Singh Dhoni or a Michael Clarke? Cook has yet to display any such traits but if he is willing to innovate and be daring, it would be wise to invest in him.
The ball is in the England selectors’ court and any decision, whether to retain Cook or appoint a new captain, has to be taken now as the World Cup is only four months away. Besides, England will be playing 13 one-dayers in the run-up to the event which gives sufficient time for the squad to settle with or without Cook.
The selectors have an opportunity to take that call when they pick the squad for the seven-match one-day series in Sri Lanka today.
Indications are that, on a strong recommendation from coach Peter Moores, they have decided to retain Cook as captain for the Sri Lanka series. In that case, they should sustain that support all the way until the World Cup irrespective of how the team fares in Sri Lanka. Any change midway will be catastrophic as it will be akin to entering a warfare unarmed.
A big positive though is the flood of exciting one-day players England has thrown up, who if handled properly, have the ability to pull off a few surprises at the World Cup.
The likes of Alex Hales, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Gary Ballance, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes are all multi-utility players and proven matchwinners too. Add Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad and James Anderson to that mix and we have a fantastic one-day outfit. It will be a shame if they end up with a clueless captain at the World Cup.
