After a tough series against India and with Joe Root ready to step up, the time may be right for Alastair Cook to relinquish captaincy.
Keeping in mind the circumstances, we ask: Is it time for Alastair Cook to step down as captain?
JAMES PIERCY, Deputy Editor, SAYS YES
Alastair Cook’s denial was steadfast but the minute his interview with the Cricketer magazine was published in early November, in which he questioned his own appetite to continue as captain, the clock started ticking.
Cook insisted he was a victim of his own honesty but uncertainty has crept into his position which, coupled with England’s poor results in India, have only heightened the subject on the agenda.
Before each Test, Cook has been peppered with questions about his future to the extent coach Trevor Bayliss admitted it’s become, “a pain in the backside”.
Cook, understandably, doesn’t want to make a decision, “in the heat of the moment” but at some stage a definitive answer has to be given. Either Cook stays until 2018 or Joe Root – a man, he himself, said last week is “ready” – takes over.
Cook has served for four years and played in more Tests as skipper (59) than any other England captain – he’s more than done his duty.
He turns 32 on Sunday and has at least three years left at the highest level, so decisions should be made to ensure his longevity is guaranteed and he doesn’t retire from cricket altogether.
If the captaincy is wearing him down, do something about it, especially with Root being such an outstanding candidate. Now is an ideal time to bed him into the role ahead of the Ashes. If he, Cook and the rest of the team all know he’s going to be given the job eventually, why wait?
Should he be handed the responsibility in the next few days – assuming it happens at the end of this series – he has seven months to prepare himself mentally before a three-Test home series against South Africa in July.
That is a pleasant but still challenging introduction; against a team in a slight transitional period of their own with a relatively new-ish captain in Faf Du Plessis, before the West Indies in August gives him the opportunity to really get his feet under the table.
This is all ignoring the fact that Cook will be by his side as well. He’s not going to slip away in terms of having an opinion and will be an invaluable ally in helping Root’s elevation to the role.
BARNY READ, Online Deputy Editor, SAYS NO
Before delving into this topic, you must first say Alastair Cook deserves to dictate his own future as captain. And with England’s Test side amid a period of real transition, it is Cook that should be leading the revolution.
After years searching for a suitable accompaniment to Cook at the top of the order and the ill-fated trials of Ben Duckett and Gary Ballance further down, Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings have been great finds.
The pair’s performances in India are the greatest positives to come from an otherwise fruitless series and a prolonged run in the team are what the two youngsters need. And to ensure both experience a comfortable integration into Test cricket, more upheaval is unnecessary and could prove damaging in the long term.
With this in mind, now more than ever is Cook needed to lead the troops into a year that ends with an Ashes series Down Under, where his experience of the most hostile conditions for an England side to tour are pivotal to their chances.
Arguments could certainly be made for Joe Root being given the job for the summer as preparation for the Ashes. But, in the wider context of things, replacing Cook has the potential to do more harm than good.
There should be no thought that giving up the captaincy would bring better returns with the bat, considering how he has churned out runs with alarming regularity ever since taking over as skipper.
For some that is a sticking point, added distractions and responsibility sometimes coming at the cost of runs and, right now, England cannot afford to risk losing Root’s runs.
Root may take to the task like Cook or Indian contemporary Virat Kohli but now is not the time to test that theory. It may seem a conservative approach but in Cook they are in safe hands.
Considering the high turnover of batsmen in their middle-order, this could do with being tempered with some stability. Succession planning is integral in sport and England’s has long planned to see Root take over eventually.
That should still be the case but, for now, Root, Cook and England should wait until 2018 before the reins are handed over.
