Five Greatest Moments of Alastair Cook's Career

#4 Breaking the Indian voodoo

Cook backed his best players during the series win in India

In modern cricket, it was the fashion for visiting sides to struggle in India and it was the norm for England to be abysmal.

While their performances in Australia looked lacking in edge as compared to the hosts, in India, they seemed to be a tad befuddled regarding the general operations of a cricketing bat.

In 2012, they arrived on the shores of their nemesis, Cook only recently been handed captaincy.

As was usual for anything he did, there was a lot of chatter about him not doing it with a demeanour of the glamorous valour of his predecessors.

However, Cook had a plan. And a ridiculously simple one.

He backed his best cricketers.

Kevin Pietersen was given the confidence of his role in the side and was asked to do typically Pietersen things.

While the spinners were his go-to, he called on James Anderson and Steve Finn to exploit the reverse swing available on the SG ball in the subcontinent, a ploy many captains failed to exploit due to their judgement being clouded with the hysteria of using spin.

Oh, and for his own contribution? 562 neat runs including a near invincible 190 at Kolkata, to set up England's first series win in India since 1984/85.

To put things in context, only one other side has won a Test series in India in this millennium. And that side managed to have the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie handy.