Former England captain Alastair Cook believes that Ashley Giles, who is the managing director of England cricket, has a huge role to play if England wants to turn things around from here on. Notable that there is a huge amount of pressure on England head coach Chris Silverwood as the England cricket fraternity believes that the coach should be sacked after this Ashes debacle.
However, Cook appeals not to make Silverwood a scapegoat and believes that Giles needs to hit the reset button to start things from scratch for England.
“I was concerned by the decision earlier in the year to remove Ed Smith from his role as a national selector and put most of the responsibility in the hands of the head coach Chris Silverwood.
“Silverwood may end up being the fall guy for this tour but decision-making above him needs to be scrutinised. Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, has a huge job on his hands to turn around our fortunes in red-ball cricket,” Cook wrote in his column for The Times.
Cook gave an example of their arch-rivals. A year ago, Australia lost a home series against a depleted Indian side by 1-2 but since then they turned things around and won the Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time, and now dominating the Ashes.
“A year ago, Australia had lost to India at home and people were wondering whether Justin Langer was the right man to take his country forward. Now Langer has guided his side to a T20 World Cup title and a comprehensive Ashes victory. That is quite a turnaround. England are capable of a similar recovery. They need a reset first, though,” he added further.
“I hope Root can do a better job than I did in 2013-14”-Alastair Cook
However, he sympathized with captain Joe Root who is on the verge of another whitewash. Notable that Alastair Cook was on receiving end when England faced whitewash last time in 2013-14. Cook hopes that Root would do better to avoid it. Root has captained 8 tests in Australia and in none of those 8 tests, England could take 20 wickets.
“Being 3-0 down, the Ashes gone, it is an incredibly tough place for a captain. Joe will have to manage players, coaches, and support staff all with individual agendas. It is a lot for him to manage, and I hope he can do a better job than I did in 2013-14,” he added.
Cook also pointed out that Root captained England for four and a half years and he speculates the uncertainty over his future as captain. England will travel to West Indies for 3- Test match series in March.
“Speculation is also mounting around, the future of Joe Root as captain. Interestingly, he has been doing the job about 4½ years, which is roughly the same amount of time I had been in charge for when I stood down after the 4-0 loss in India in 2016,” he further said.
The fourth Ashes Test will begin on January 5 in Sydney.
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