After the 5-0 capitulation, the writing was on the wall for Alastair Cook and his men who lost more than they had won in 2013. Finger points out to Cook (obviously) and coach, Andy Flower who has seen brighter days than these.
After the 5-0 capitulation, the writing was on the wall for Alastair Cook and his men who lost more than they had won in 2013. Finger points out to Cook (obviously) and coach, Andy Flower who has seen brighter days than these. As dark days loom, Cook and company need to introspect as in what went wrong for them? As quoted in BBC, Cook says, his side did not ‘throw in the towel’. He says, “I don’t think we threw in the towel. It’s been a combination of four and a half Test matches under the pump. It’s all gone pretty wrong. If it was a boxing match it would have been stopped. There is a lot of frustration that we have not played very well. We have been totally outplayed, and that is the hardest thing to take.”
Former skipper Nasser Hussain in his column for the English newspaper, Daily Mail, called for a calmer approach. He writes, “The bottom line is that this has been an unmitigated disaster for England and for Alastair Cook. From start to finish, everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, and Cook’s name will always be associated with a 5-0 Ashes defeat, just as Andrew Flintoff’s was after the 2006-07 whitewash.”
“Personally, I think he should stay on. He’s only just turned 29, and this is his first series defeat in six as captain. It’s not as if he’s a 35-year-old with a track record of failure behind him. And no England captain in history has had to deal with 10 straight Ashes Tests at such a young age.”
Many ex-England cricketers termed the 5-0 whitewash as an ‘end of an era’ and seemingly so, the team that took over the reigns of number 1 Test side in the world, won a series in India; the current one looks a pale shadow of it former.
Yes, I agree that the change is required but why can’t ECB selectors have a look at India. They too were hammered by ‘then powerful’ England and Australia (0-8) and it looked all over for MS Dhoni. But fortunes turned and the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid left the dressing room as Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma took the ascendancy. Indian team is in transition and even though they have lost the series in South Africa, the former did put up a fight.
The likes of Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott have called it a day but their domestic cricket has enough talent to fill in boots of the former greats.
With Sri Lanka and India visiting the England shores this English summer, Lords might witness a youthful and reignited squad that will play cricket as it is used to be, hopefully!
