SHOULD ALASTAIR COOK RESIGN?
StrumSolo > 21/07/2014, 18:07
England looked pretty well set on Thursday. They won the toss and decided to bowl at India on the sort of green wicket that should have been an unfamiliar nightmare for the tourists. Except, thanks to our 'attack', it wasn't really. They finished that first innings 295 all out (probably 100 over par) and put on 342 in the second.
England reached 319 on Friday and Saturday, and went in to Day 5 this morning 110-4, needing 208 for the win. Hardly a gimme, but possible, worst case scenario you dig in for the draw...
What you don't do is collapse after lunch and lose a succession of cheap wickets to bouncing deliveries. It was like Mitchell Johnson all over again, and England were all out for 223, 95 runs short.
That's 9 tests without a win now, 7 of them defeats, and Cook hasn't scored a hundred in 27 innings.
Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart have both said he should go, that he's more use as an in-form opener (providing he can recapture his form after a bit of a break) than he is as an under-performing captain.
Cook himself has ruled that out, for now at least, and clearly feels he's the man to turns thing round. Though if this series deteriorates further still, he might find that the decision is taken out of his hands.
Poll at the top, cast your votes!