So, Alastair Cook has been relieved of the captaincy of the England ODI team. Relieved is the word. I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved. Cook must be too. He can go away and concentrate on getting back to being an all-time great Test opener. The ODI team can prepare for the World Cup.
The annoying thing is that the same logic applied a year ago. Cook was a broken man by the end of the ODI series in Australia. He sounded ready to quit. It has been an angst-filled year, with Cook invariably at the centre of it. I can’t help feeling that much of the anguish could have been avoided.
Imagine if Cook had been allowed to regain his red-ball rhythm – to again trust his Test match game. Imagine if he had led from the front with a daddy hundred – as he had in India. It would have hushed the doubts over his captaincy, bought him the time to develop into a decent captain.
Imagine if the ODI team could have spent a year gearing up for the World Cup. Moving the Ashes was supposed to mean England would have the best ever preparation for a World Cup. Not saying much, given post-1992 history, but any progress made this year – Joe Root, Moeen Ali, James Taylor, Jos Buttler, Chrises Jordan and Woakes – has been overshadowed by the slow death of Alastair Cook. There is no way in the world that Cook is good enough to get in the best England ODI XI. That he was captain shouldn’t have mattered.
Back in the Ashes fall-out, it might have made political sense, too. There would still have been a whole world of stink surrounding the sacking of Kevin Pietersen, but maybe, by removing the ODI captaincy from Cook, it would have made less of a scapegoat of KP. It might have meant that Cook’s form wouldn’t have been somehow representative of the ECB and the decision to ditch KP – wouldn’t have been the political football that it became. It’s not too much of a stretch to believe that Cook would have benefitted from all that. England, too.
What to make of England’s chances in the World Cup? Free from the Cook conundrum, England may just be liberated to play a more fearless brand of cricket. Eoin Morgan has a record to suggest that the captaincy enhances his game. The batting might fire. The bowling? I’m less convinced.
For what it’s worth, here’s my World Cup XI:
1. Ian Bell
2. Alex Hales
3. Moeen Ali
4. Joe Root
5. James Taylor
6. Eoin Morgan
7. Ravi Bopara
8. Jos Buttler
9. Stuart Broad
10. Chris Woakes/Chris Jordan
11. Steven Finn/James Tredwell
It’s time for Ian Bell to stand up. He could be England’s Jayawardene, Tendulkar, Amla. If Jonathan Trott averaged 50-odd in ODIs then Bell must be capable. He and Root would be the rocks around which scores of 300+ could be made. There is no shortage of explosive potential in that batting order, but potential is all it is – and that goes for Bell as an opener, as well.
No Jimmy Anderson? No, and here’s why: the same reasons I wouldn’t pick Cook. Is he in the best XI? Probably – certainly more so than Cook – but if it doesn’t swing … Would his Test career be enhanced and prolonged by not playing the short forms of the game? Yes. There is no shame in being a Test specialist. It is, after all, what England are. As frustrating as following England in the World Cup has been – and no doubt will continue to be – I’m kind of proud that Test cricket is as alive here as it is anywhere.