Is there anything Alastair Cook can’t do?
Ok, I doubt he can wrestle a North American grizzly, or win a tug of war contest with an Indian elephant, but I’m beginning to think that Alastair Cook is perfect. He makes mere mortals like us seem like worthless plebs in comparison. If David Beckham’s balls are 24 carat gold, then Cook’s are probably made of platinum.
Every challenge that comes Cook’s way is overcome with nonchalance and modesty. And every so called expert who’s dared to question his credentials has been sent packing – metaphorically of course; Cook seems so gentlemanly that he’d probably invite his biggest critics to dinner sooner than gloat in their faces. In which case Alastair, where’s our invitation?
Before the Ashes we didn’t really rate Cook. We’d always admired his mental resilience, but we doubted his class. However, events down under proved that he can succeed in different conditions after all.
The Ashes also showed that Cook’s got a few shots in his locker. He probably didn’t take them out beforehand because he was somewhat embarrassed by their quality. He is, after all, quintessentially English: one doesn’t do pizzazz you know.
Having conquered the test arena emphatically, Cook turned his attention to ODIs. Things worked out pretty well for him. His absence from the World Cup debacle worked to his advantage. He wasn’t just invited back into the one-day fold soon afterwards – he was made captain.
Most experts criticised his appointment. ‘Cook doesn’t have the big shots for one-day cricket’ they said. One cricket blog in particular cried blue murder; I can’t remember its exact name but it sounded a bit like The Fool’s Dross.
Once again Cook ate the challenge in front of him for breakfast – he scored a hatful of runs against Sri Lanka and led his side to an unlikely series win against the World Cup finalists (a team, incidentally, who had stuffed England in the quarter-finals just a few weeks earlier).
However, despite his 50 over success, there was still one challenge which Cook had yet to overcome. Surely his batting was too limited to succeed in T20 cricket? The second ODI at the Rose Bowl, which was reduced to 23 overs due to heavy rain, enabled him to prove the critics wrong yet again.
Although the Indian attack was desperately poor at the Rose Bowl – they bowled too short and enabled Cook to play his favourite cuts and pulls – we saw real evidence that our ODI skipper might become versatile enough to play in all three forms of the game. One six over mid-wicket was imperious.
One swallow does not make a summer (and better attacks might be able to pin Cook down) but would you bet against him? We have in the past – and we’ve lost every time. Take our advice: never bet against a bloke who makes Superman look inadequate at times.
James Morgan
He does seem to be doing everything these days. I won’t be surprised if he scores a daddy hundred in the morning and then update the ECB’s website in the evening.
When the ODI became a 23-23, I sent an email to several friends about how Cook should stand down. I didn’t just criticise his ability to play T20 – I argued he had no experience of captaining in that format. I made a complete fool of myself (not the first time).