Alastair Cook returned to the frontline of English cricket on Friday and the captain was in bullish mood in the run-up to England’s departure to Sri Lanka on Sunday, insisting the side have no excuses for further failure.
Looking more relaxed than he has at any point this year – a two-month break having clearly done him the world of good – Cook also dismissed the possibility of Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography, released at the start of last month, having an effect on the players. “We have had a couple of weeks together and we haven’t felt the need to talk about it at all,” he said. “The camp has been a really good place to be. I think we’ve moved on. All the fallout has happened.”
The focus instead is on Sri Lanka and making strides in the one-day game before the World Cup. Despite recent struggles, most notably the summer’s comprehensive series loss to India, Cook is confident England can make significant strides. He said: “We haven’t had our full-strength side since the Champions Trophy [in June 2013]. Priorities change. We obviously had back-to-back Ashes series so a lot of the guys were rested from one-day cricket. That is not the case now.
“We have a full strength side, we have guys who are desperate to get a World Cup spot and we have time to really focus on us as an England one-day side. The last time we were able to do that we were very dangerous. A lot of one-day cricket is played on the back of Test series when guys are tired and you can’t do as much work on your skills. We have this five-week tour ahead of us now and we can’t use that excuse now.”
The pressure on Cook throughout 2014 has been relentless. Having answered the questions relating to his role as Test captain the scrutiny turned to whether he should even be in the one-day side, let alone leading it. Having lost five of the previous six one-day series, he has been under constant fire. High-profile voices such as the former England players Graeme Swann and Michael Vaughan said the 29-year-old should not be part of the ODI setup. Asked what makes him think they are wrong there was a suitably prickly response from the captain. “Well didn’t Michael Vaughan want me out as Test captain as well? He actually had to admit he was wrong there as well.
“We have an opportunity as a side to put in some good performances and I am particularly looking to do this. It will be great if people change their tunes in five months’ time. The only time England have been ranked No1 in one-day cricket I was captain.”
Of Pietersen’s book, he added: “I felt in the summer we were moving on as a team but we had this publication date hanging over us and everyone was talking about what was going to happen. Now it’s all out from his side, no more can come out and we can build and move on as a side and as a captain that’s a good place to be.”
This is a unique winter for England cricket with a diet of nothing but one-day games in the lead-up to the World Cup, which starts in February. It’s a new-looking squad and Cook was honest about the fact that he does not necessarily know them all well. But he feels the reworking of the schedule by the ECB to move the Ashes forward a year gives England one of their best opportunities to win a World Cup. “This goes back a few years in planning and asking ourselves why our World Cups have not gone well,” said the captain. “Since 1992 we have not done ourselves justice in any World Cups.”
England’s perceived lack of aggression and inability to put on big totals has been the subject of discussion again. Cook is seen as too slow, England are seen as too conservative and their chosen method of building a platform and keeping wickets in hand is often branded as being stuck in the 1990s. Cook cautiously acknowledged that the game has moved on but stopped short of that England will change their approach to one-day cricket.
“In the last three or so years 250 being par has gone up, but I don’t think it has gone up as much as people have made out,” he said. “We haven’t won our last few series so we do have to improve the way we play. I don’t think it requires a radical change of method, though.”
England squad
Cook (Essex, capt), Ali (Worcs), Bell (Warks), Bopara (Essex), Buttler (Lancs, wkt), Finn (Middx), Gurney (Notts), Hales (Notts), Jordan (Sussex), Morgan (Middx), Root (Yorks), Stokes (Durham), Taylor (Notts), Tredwell (Kent), Woakes (Warks).
