Not the right time to decide on captaincy: Alastair Cook

England faced a serious drubbing of 4-0 at the hands of India in the recently concluded series. The English skipper Alastair Cook has come under the scrutiny following the dismal show. There have been speculations about him stepping down from the captaincy role. However, Cook begs to differ on this note. With England having their next Test assignment after 7 months, they surely have a lot of time to take a call.

Cook believes that if they have a period as big as that to think, they should use it. He quoted by Time of India saying that he wishes to spend some happy time during Christmas. He mentioned that he will sit with the Director of England Cricket, Mr. Andrew Strauss, before coming to a decision.

“I’ve got to go away and do some thinking. This is not right time to make decisions as big as that. I need to go home first enjoy Christmas as much as I can do and then come back in January and look to plan with Straussy and see what’s the right decision for English cricket,” quoted Alastair Cook.

He further cited that the morale is down and hence this is not a good time to make crucial decisions. “I’ve got to go away and decide whether I am the right man to take England forward. It’s the wrong time to make those decisions as energy is low and you can make foolish decisions,” he added.

Emphasizing his point, Cook remarked that he would like to use the available time in hand before decides on the captaincy. In case he steps down, batsman Joe Root will be England’s best bet as the next captain.

“When there’s not a Test match for seven months it’d seem very foolish to stand here now and make a decision which either you regret or don’t. If there was a Test match in three weeks time you’d have to think. But while there is a bit of space why not use it?” the England skipper pointed out.

He further quoted the India tour as a ‘tough’ one for the team. He credited India for the way they outplayed England. Also, Alastair Cook admitted that the team failed to soak in pressure at key moments of the game.

“It’s been a tough tour. When you lose games of cricket it becomes very hard and it can be quite a lonely place. You’ve got to give credit to India. They’ve played some good cricket on the way. We knew it would be a pressure day today and at some stage we would lose a wickets in clusters. We weren’t good enough or skillful enough as players to stop that momentum. So, yes, it’s tough,” he mentioned.

The key difference between the two sides was the consistency of the spinners. While Indian spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja accounted for 54 wickets in the series, the English spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali were far from being impressive. Cook admitted that the English spinners were just not good enough.

“I think everyone can see we are suited to playing in seaming conditions. These conditions have tested us to our limits and I really don’t want to be disrespectful to Mo (Moeen Ali) and Adil (Rashid) but they are not as good as Ashwin and Jadeja yet. They haven’t quite got the control and consistency, certainly in the first innings when there’s not much happening,” he admitted.

Jadeja made life difficult for the opposition skipper. He accounted for Cook on 6 occasions in the series. The English skipper modestly admitted that he was not good enough against the left armer. His stats against the left-arm spin deteriorated as the series progressed.

“I have a good overall record against left-arm spin. My stats have taken a bit of a dent in the last six weeks and yep, I found him hard work. It’s a strange thing for me and credit to him. He’s found a weakness there and was relentless. I wasn’t good enough to cope with it,” he conceded.