Shane Warne praises Alastair Cook after his stint as captain

Legendary Australian spinner, Shane Warne has buried a long and ill-founded hatchet with former English captain Alastair Cook as he praised him for his service to English Cricket and as an individual. The second most successful bowler in the history of Test cricket with over 700 scalps had previously had a rough relationship with the opener from the bitter rivals but appears to be past it.

After he had vociferously criticised the left-hander in 2014, as having seen the “worst day of captaincy”, he had called on Cook to give up captaincy after the home series loss to Sri Lanka and focus on his batting. However, in his recent chat on Facebook Live, Warne was unreserved in his praise for the 32-year-old who recently reached the 11000-run mark in Test, making him the youngest to do so.

“He’s been a wonderful ambassador for the game of cricket,” Warne said, fancying Cook as a guy “you wouldn’t mind your daughter marrying. He went through some really tough times a few years ago when a lot of us, me included, thought he wasn’t suited to the job.”

“But England backed him and he’s done a great job over the last couple of years. He’s respected by his teammates and the way he’s conducted things on and off the field. I think he’s done a wonderful job for England and I wish him all the best.” Warne added.

Also read- Ian Botham remarks Alastair Cook has the best chance to pip Tendulkar

In his 4 and a half years at the helm, Cook was a part of some memorable series wins including the away win in India, and regaining the Ashes twice, but also crossed a lot of personal batting milestones which included becoming the leading run-scorer for England in Tests, the most capped English player, the youngest to 10,000 and 11,000 runs among other records.

In the 59 Tests that he led his team in, he was victorious in 24, the second most for an England captain. Warne backed Joe Root to succeed Cook and asserted that the 32-year-old as a batsman remains a valuable asset for England, and that “pressure off him” would help him as a batsman.

“He’s got a chance to break all the records now,” Warne continued. “I think with that pressure off him it will allow him to make a lot of runs over the next few years.England definitely need his batting.”

“Hopefully Joe Root will take the reins and I think he’ll do a good job as captain.” He said.