In the last 24 months, Alastair Cook has endured a phase of ups and downs. A majority of the patches though were, filled with downs and failures. It all began against Australia in the 2013 Ashes in England. In a closely fought series between the traditional rivals, England won the series 3-0. Yes, it was a close fought series; don’t be fooled by the numbers. England won the first game by a whisker, and through umpiring blunders, of course! The third win for England in the series came when Australia had dominated the entire game, but failed miserably on just one session.
In the return leg, the Ashes three months later Down Under, the Aussies whitewashed England 5-0 and Mitchell Johnson raked misery on the English. The infamous fallout with Pietersen came to fore, and Cook to a high degree was seen as the culprit behind the falling out. A series loss at home to Sri Lanka was another tremendous blow. That was followed by a 3-1 victory over India at home, but the same opponents thrashed Cook’s ODI side.
Recently, the English failed to win the series against West Indies, and this is cited as a failure. England’s last Test assignment was New Zealand, against whom they drew 1-1. With things looking bleak for England in the longest format, the presence of Australia will only compound matters.
At a recent event, Cook was gracious enough to admit the fact that winning the Ashes against Australia will be a herculean task. Cook though, said that regaining the Ashes would be his biggest achievement till date.
“Losing that Test series against Sri Lanka and that fourth day at Headingley is as tough as it can get, so from where we have been if we did win the Ashes at The Oval (the venue for the fifth and final Test starting August 20) that would be remarkable, and something I would be very proud of – it would be my best achievement. We have a good chance of winning. It is going to be a highly competitive series and we will go in as the underdogs because they are the best side in the world,” Cook said.
Cook also opened up about working in tandem with England’s new coach Trevor Bayliss. “We can’t pretend it’s ideal meeting the coach for the first time a week before the Ashes,” Cook conceded.”It’s the first time I’ve had a coach I do not know at all. Obviously, with Peter Moores, Andrew Flower and Ashley Giles, I knew them, so I think it’s really exciting to have a guy totally from the outside and with a totally different set of eyes looking at us.”
“I saw Jimmy Anderson last night (Thursday), and as soon as we started talking about cricket he told me what he wanted to do to certain players. This is a guy who has taken 400 wickets so that excited me,” Cook further added.
When asked about his future as the captain of England, Cook said, “I don’t know. Ever since we lost the Ashes 5-0 in Australia I have taken every series as an individual event.We all saw how quickly it changed at Christmas last year. I am just going to do this series – we have such an opportunity to play Australia here with cricket hitting the headlines for the right reasons and a real good feel factor and vibe about the game. We have got that to look forward to. Let’s look at that and not worry about anything else.”
“Come August I will sit down with everyone, with Trevor, and we will plot a path forward or we will see. But just before an Ashes series is not the right time to talk,” he concluded.