The openers haven't had a great time in the ongoing Test series between England and India. England's Alastair Cook, especially, has been having a horrid run. In the three Tests so far, he has been the worst performing England batsman with just 80 runs in 5 innings at an average of 16.
In fact, Cook's performance this year has been a major cause of concern. In eight Tests this year, the left-handed opener has managed only 269 runs with one hundred and one fifty. Over the past many years, Cook's solidity at the top helped post good totals on the board. With him being out of form, and for some time now, England's Test results have also suffered.
Cook has been one of the giants of England cricket. After all, he is England's leading Test run-scorer of all time with 12,225 runs and 32 hundreds in 159 Tests at an average of 45.11. However, over the past few years, we have seen only glimpses of Cook's brilliance – 263 against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in 2016, 243 against West Indies at Birmingham, 244* vs Australia at Melbourne. All of these have been stupendous performances. But the problem is that they have been sporadic.
After every good knock these days, Cook seems to struggle with form and has a long string of poor scores which hurts the team badly. His performances in 2018 have been pretty mediocre which has raised genuine concern for his future in the format.
Darren Gough, the former England bowler, feels that Alistair Cook should have been dropped a long time ago. In a column in 'Yorkshire Post,' Gough wrote: "Let's be honest if it had been anybody else he would have been dropped a long time ago." He further added: "We all want Alastair to go out on a high. I have known him a long, long time; he is a terrific bloke and a great player. But he is not getting runs. Trevor Bayliss says he is not getting runs but is not out of nick. But isn't not getting runs being out of nick?"
Gough has put forth some valid points. While England captain Joe Root has publically said that the England team is behind Cook at this point, they need to think deeply about the future of the team. Even if Cook were to score hundreds in both the remaining Tests of the series would that be enough? Point is that he has been very inconsistent for a long period now.
The Indian team recently axed opener Murali Vijay after his long run of poor scores and have decided to give opportunities to youngsters like KL Rahul and 18-year-old Prithvi Shaw. It is time England also starts looking beyond Alastair Cook and begin investing in the future.
