Under pressure England skipper Alastair Cook finds support in Indian camp

Duncan Fletcher

Alastair Cook is going through one of his leanest phases as an England player, with his last Test century coming more than 12 months back against New Zealand at Headingley, Leeds. His technique has been found wanting of late with seam bowlers, across the world, targeting the full length outside off-stump, thereby depriving him of his most productive cut and pull strokes. While the technical issues that have crept into his batting need some sorting out, his on-field tactics as captain have been diabolical and compounded his problems.

England’s upcoming Test series against India is, probably, the most important series of Cook’s life, with a series defeat at home against Sri Lanka and continued poor form with the bat forcing the selectors to rethink Cook’s position as captain, if not as a player altogether. At a time like this, one would’ve expected Duncan Fletcher, the Indian coach, to ramp up the pressure on the England captain, but he has, instead, provided support to Cook in this tough period.

“For however long he's (Cook) struggled, give me one player who hasn't been through that period for that length of time,” Fletcher said on the eve of India’s first warm-up match against Leicestershire. “I remember Mark Taylor. How long did he not get a run for? Australia kept him on as captain. He went through a big period where he didn't get any - and they kept him. It's as simple as that.”

These words of support, from Fletcher, shouldn’t come as a surprise even though he is, now, in the opposition camp. After all, it was under his tenure that Cook flew across to India from an England ‘A’ tour in the West Indies as a replacement player for Marcus Trescothick, who had fallen ill, and struck a hundred in second innings on debut.

Fletcher, current Indian coach, provides support to his old protege Cook

“There were two things that struck me. Firstly, I thought he was a very intelligent cricketer who understood the game,” Fletcher said. “I remember talking in one of the very first team meetings he came to, he'd just been flown across from the West Indies, and for a young player we asked about someone and he quite confidently stood up and said 'this player does this and this player does that'. There are very few players who are prepared to commit to something like that at such an early stage in the England squad.”

Another thing that Fletcher has always been keen on, while judging young batsmen, is not necessarily batting statistics but their determination and will to guts it out, and Cook has never been short on those qualities.

“The next thing was that I think he's a very determined individual. He's very, very determined which I think most opening bats have to be. In fact if you have a look at batters and pick them on their mental aspect one of them would be that they have to be determined and stubborn. And I think Alastair's got that.”

MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, has himself been on the receiving end of scathing criticism from the media and the fans on numerous occasions and could sympathize with Cook’s current plight. “A bad phase is something that everybody goes through. You just need to back players at the right point,” Dhoni said. “When you're getting those big hundreds and double hundreds everybody will be on your side. The real test of character is when your fans or when the media and team-mates are supporting you when you're not doing well.”