Hussain, Botham, and Atherton fear for Alastair Cook and England captaincy

Former England captains Nasser Hussain, Ian Botham, and Mike Atherton have made an attempt to do a quick post-mortem on the situation incumbent skipper Alastair Cook finds himself in. In spite of the fact that the situation does not look all that great, the trio of them firmly believes that Alastair Cook is the perfect man for the job.

Sir Ian Botham was the first to open up since he was the one who had a pretty traumatic end to his time as England skipper. Recalling what had taken place in 1981, Botham went on to state that the responsibility needs to be taken by some of the England players whose shots were rather ordinary, to say the least.

“First and foremost, is it his fault that England has lost those Tests? It wasn’t his fault today in Chennai – some of the batting was appalling. There were too many soft dismissals. I don’t think you can blame Alastair Cook for that.”

“Cook is the only person who knows if he still wants it and is still hungry for it. Does he want to go and sit in front of the press after a day’s play like this and try to explain himself? If he does, then fine he should carry on captaining but you have to give him that opportunity – I feel he has done enough to have the choice.”

Botham however, went on to reiterate that he should take a call once he touches down in England. “He should go home now and let the dust settle. A lot of his players need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask if they did their best. That’ll give him the chance to talk things over with his family.”

Nasser Hussain, in contrast to a few others, was rather steadfast in his support for Alastair Cook stating that he should stay on as skipper. “I don’t think he should go – but on the one proviso that he still has that fight and stubbornness in him. Only he knows that. I have to say that sometimes his body language looked a bit too happy, as if he’s climbed his mountain – he had his redemption against Australia in 2015. Does he need this anymore? He’s just had another young child.

“This is not a job you can do half-heartedly. He has to give it everything because he’s not a tactical genius – he has made loads of errors out there. But he always has done as captain. It’s like his batting, it’s not a work of art, but in the end, there is a result where you think ‘look at those stats’ and that’s what his captaincy is like.”

Finally, Mike Atherton went on to compare himself as skipper with Alastair Cook saying, “There is only so much you can take. Alastair Cook has soaked up more than most. It may look different in a month’s time when he’s had a rest but looking at him after the defeat he looked like a man who’d had enough. If I was a betting man, I reckon he’ll step down in time. I don’t think he’ll be sacked but I think he’ll probably feel like he’s done enough; that would be my best guess.”

“He looked absolutely shell-shocked. He had that haunted look that I’ve seen in many England captains’ eyes. This was a bad defeat. We thought Mumbai was a bad defeat, but they’ve gone worse here in Chennai.”

“There were hints of humiliation in this defeat; 477 is the highest score ever made in a Test match to lose by an innings. They’ve been absolutely walloped and as a captain, he’s just feeling absolutely shell-shocked right now. I’ve been there when I resigned.”