***Official*** Sri Lanka in England and Ireland 2014

[Jono]

Personal theory - a perceived need to be more "aggressive", especially with his captaincy being perceived as being negative, has also played with him. You look at a number of his starts in Australia, and Cook would come out scoring quickly but playing a lot of shots that you wouldn't normally see him play till he was 80+.

Yeah good post. Just goes under the umbrella of right now he's mentally shot. Honestly his performance in India was outstanding (with bat and as captain) but there wasn't the same pressure. If they lost that series 4-0 it wouldn't have been great, but expectations weren't high. Every series since then they have been expected to win, and he's feeling it.

On top of that he's had to deal with a disgraceful dressing room culture and a Board making him look like a yes-man. Doesn't know how to bat as captain is a factor, but it didn't hurt him in India, only after when the heat really was on.

He's just cooked. Pun fully intended bitches.

 

[Spikey]

John Etheridge ‏@JohnSunCricket 43s

If Cook does resign (unlikely at this stage), I think Eoin Morgan would be best man to replace him. But he's not in the team at the moment.

 

[morgieb]

The only problem with dumping Cook is that there isn't a clear replacement.

He does need to go though. Not a good captain and it's been affecting his form since the India series.

 

[Spark]

Yes there is. Bell.

He might not be the most ideal captain or the choice that will cause anyone a great deal of joy but he is a clear and obvious replacement.

Don't think ECB will let him go, though. The general feeling is that it'd be too embarrassing for the higher ups and I have to agree with that.

 

[Daemon]

Cook captained well in India?

 

[3703]

It's awesome to see Sri Lanka in this position. Says more about England though you feel.

Australia broke them.

 

[Spark]

Cook captained well in India?

Leading from the front etc

 

[Jono]

Cook captained well in India?

Played two spinners. Such hindsight that everyone said Monty was always going to bowl well in India. Everyone was saying you don't play tow spinners vs India ever.

Learned to have more attacking field placements following the first test for his spinners even when India were going after them.

Batting was magnificent.

Used Anderson well.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Yeah good post. Just goes under the umbrella of right now he's mentally shot. Honestly his performance in India was outstanding (with bat and as captain) but there wasn't the same pressure. If they lost that series 4-0 it wouldn't have been great, but expectations weren't high. Every series since then they have been expected to win, and he's feeling it.

On top of that he's had to deal with a disgraceful dressing room culture and a Board making him look like a yes-man. Doesn't know how to bat as captain is a factor, but it didn't hurt him in India, only after when the heat really was on.

He's just cooked. Pun fully intended bitches.

Series in India let him play how he best should - to his limitations. Knew he could only do certain things against the spinners, and waited to do those things.

 

[Adders]

Cook captained well in India?

Well I can't recall noticing his captaincy which is normally an indication that it is being done well.

Agree with Jono and VO in their comments.......he's mentally shot and doesn't seen to know how to get himself out of the hole, either as a batsmen or captain. Genuinely feel sad for the bloke, he seems like one of the good guy's.

I don't believe that Bell is the answer though, I think he would be too samey. It's **** or bust on Root or bring in Morgan.........neither option is at all appealing though.

Basically we're ****ed and I think us England fans better prepare for some more years back in the doldrums........oh well, good while it lasted.

 

[viriya]

Cook's captaincy and batting travails are being focused on way too much here imo.. SL just outplayed an inexperienced Eng side in the last 2.5 days with Eng's veterans (Bell, Anderson, Broad, Prior, Cook) all underperforming. Most if not all the solid performances from Eng in this series have been from the kids (Root 200, Ballance 100, Robson 100, Plunkett 5).. only Jordan and Ali have disappointed. For SL the vets have all done their part (Sanga, Mahela, Herath, Angelo) with everyone except for Thiri chipping in..

 

[Spark]

Nah. Cook's captaincy deserves everything it gets after yesterday, that was appalling.

 

[viriya]

I'd usually back you on this, and I often think the effect that the captain has on a match is far overstated (don't get me started on all this aggressive captaincy and cute declarations bull****, it's rubbish).

However, this match had some pretty clear issues in terms of captaincy.

1. Spreading the field early in the day.
2. Spreading the field when Mathews was batting with the tail. Lots of captains will do this after a while, but the speed with which he did it was shocking. Remember that the bowlers had just got rid of recognised batsmen Jayawardene and Chandimal and were bowling with a relatively new ball. 2 full sessions of spreading the field for four balls bowling teasers outside off stump (which were hit for four anyway) and then bringing the field in for two balls (which Mathews split for the single anyway). Get the bloke out, ffs.
3. Waiting so long to bowl the spinner.
4. Not trying anything different during that partnership between Cook and Herath.

He sure made some mistakes, but Mathews didn't look like he would get out at all in that innings and and Ali bowls a four ball an over.. It's not like the bowlers were coming up with edges all the time and they were going to ground because of bad field placements..

Replacing him with Bell is unlikely to change things dramatically. Cook is just the easiest target here.

 

[Zinzan]

Cook's captaincy and batting travails are being focused on way too much here imo...

Both his captaincy and batting have been garbage in the last 12 months;

Captaincy: 12 tests, 3 wins & 6 losses (assuming SL get up today)

Batting: 12 tests 601 runs @ 25.04 HS 72 and no hundreds.

This coupled with the fact he was at the centre of the debacle which saw England's best batsman being ousted and the criticism is neither surprising nor unwarranted

 

[Spark]

He didn't look like getting out because they weren't trying to get him out. How is he supposed to get out to short wide long hops with no fielders for fifty metres? How are the bowlers meant to place any pressure on the batsman and force him into an error?

In any case, that wasn't the biggest problem. The biggest problem was that there was absolutely no attempt to try anything remotely different, even after the runs had well and truly piled up. Might as well not have been there, as Dobell said today.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Yeah. I've defended Cook a lot in the past, but yesterday's performance was an omnishambles.

 

[hendrix]

Replacing him with Bell is unlikely to change things dramatically. Cook is just the easiest target here.

I have no reason to doubt Bell's captaincy skills. After yesterday, I have plenty of reasons to doubt Cook's. It's possible that Bell could be worse, but I think it's worth a shot.

 

[viriya]

If Cook is sacked as captain and maybe even dropped for another green county player and Bell is given the job instead, do you think Eng would suddenly beat India 3-0? Somehow I don't believe it. Eng are just not as good without Pietersen and Swann.. even if Cook had a direct role in that episode, it's in the past and the present Eng side is just not as good.

Especially Swann's absence - it means the quicks (Anderson, Broad etc) have to bowl more overs which means they are more tired.. Anderson especially looked like he's done for the summer already yesterday.. But as a veteran he should talk to Cook about managing his workload anyway..

 

[hendrix]

If Cook is sacked as captain and maybe even dropped for another green county player and Bell is given the job instead, do you think Eng would suddenly beat India 3-0? Somehow I don't believe it. Eng are just not as good without Pietersen and Swann.. even if Cook had a direct role in that episode, it's in the past and the present Eng side is just not as good.

no, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be better.

Noone's saying it's going to turn them into a good team overnight, just that they'd be better with a different captain.

 

[Spark]

There's such thing as an in-between. He might not be brilliant but he can't possibly be this bad.

EDIT: Also worth remembering that "solid, dependable, but short of brilliant" types can be very good captains under the right circumstances: see Strauss, Andrew.