Ashes 2017: Can Alastair Cook’s return to form improve England’s fortunes?
December 27, 2017
11, 23, 10, 17, 2, 7, 37, 16, 7 and 14. These were Alastair Cook’s scores in the last 10 innings of his international Test career, starting four of which came in a home series against West Indies, a side which is placed at 8th position in ICC Test rankings. For a batsman of Cook’s calibre, his form had been extremely woeful. It was also the longest span in his 12 years of his career for which he had failed to register a single Test fifty.
With his performance in the ongoing Ashes series showing no signs of improvement, cricketing pundits all over the world started questioning whether Cook’s time is up. “It looks to me like Cook is not very interested. Just the way that he’s got out, the manner of his dismissals and also the way he’s walked off the field once he’s got out. That’s the sign of a bloke who goes, ‘You know what? Maybe my time is up’,” former England allrounder Kevin Pietersen said in an interview after the second Test in Adelaide.
Playing his 150th Test at WACA, the 33-year old, who has played most number of matches in the longest format for England, again slumped to low figures as the visitors lost the series with another defeat in Perth.
With the 4th Test at Melbourne being a dead rubber, and England fighting just for prestige, critics questioned Cook’s place in the team. But the left-handed batsman proved his mettle as he smashed his 33rd Test hundred on the second day and took England to a strong position at stumps. In his innings comprising of 15 boundaries, Cook smashed bowlers all around the ground. He even surpassed former Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene and became the eighth highest run scorer in the longest format with 11,812 runs in the format at MCG.(Agencies)
