Alastair Cook has been granted more time to decide his future as Test captain, with England having privately advised that Friday’s meeting with the director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, will not be followed by a definitive announcement on the subject.
Cook has been mulling over whether to continue in the role since returning home from the 4-0 series defeat to India before Christmas and there has been a growing expectation in recent days that he is ready to call time on his four-year reign and hand over the leadership to his vice-captain, Joe Root.
But while England have confirmed that he and Strauss will get together for the first time since the India defeat as part of their overall review of the tour, they have also stressed that neither party is going into the talks looking to resolve the issue of the captaincy immediately given the next Test match is not until 6 July, against South Africa at Lord’s.
By looking to draw the heat out of the situation in this way – and keep the focus on the limited-overs matches with India that begin in Pune on Sunday with the first of three one-day internationals – there is clearly no will on the part of Strauss to sack his former opening partner immediately.
Instead it now appears to be down to Cook himself to decide whether he still retains the desire and drive to lead the side through the English summer and into the Ashes series at the end of the year, or whether he would better serve the team by returning to the ranks and ploughing on with his record-breaking career at the top of the order.
The latter course looked the more likely at the end of the series against Virat Kohli’s world No1 side when, following the brutal innings defeat in Chennai in which England shipped a record 759 for seven declared before losing all 10 wickets in their second innings for only 104 runs during a calamitous final-day collapse, the 32-year-old had the air of a man who had run his race as a leader and stated that he needed to “go away and do some thinking”.
Cook, who has led England a record 59 times, has twice been talked out of resigning in the past by his wife Alice, however, and since returning to their home in Bedfordshire he has kept his cards close to his chest, having not spoken about the issue to anyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board nor Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, who remain his closest allies in the current Test dressing room.
Both the England head coach, Trevor Bayliss, and his assistant, Paul Farbrace, remain similarly in the dark over Cook’s intentions and while both spoke to Strauss on Monday from India via conference call as part of his overall review of the Test leg of the tour, they like the players are understood to be more than happy for the status quo to continue.
While Root, Cook’s expected successor, would not decline any offer to take over the captaincy, he too may welcome the delay to proceedings having only joined up with the one-day squad on Thursday following the birth of his first child last weekend. The 26-year-old arrived in time to witness his team-mates suffer a six-wicket defeat in their second and final warm-up match against India A in Mumbai.