England’s Test captain says the country’s most exciting talents need to have their workloads managed as they risk burnout.
English cricket’s most exciting talents, Ben Stokes and Joe Root, must be protected and rested on occasions, according to the Test captain, Alastair Cook.
Stokes and Root, along with the versatile Moeen Ali, play for England in all three formats of the game.
“There is no right answer. But at one stage recently Rooty got very jaded and missed the one-day series against Australia,” says Cook, who rediscovered his best Test form after being dropped from the one-day side. “Those two, plus Moeen, are dead certs in all three squads. And there’s going to have to be times to take those guys out of international cricket. When it becomes a chore, you need to protect them.”
Cook looked totally relaxed in jeans and T-shirt, and is looking forward to a more low-key return to cricket with Essex at the start of the domestic season.
He admits that he had not watched a ball of England’s three recent ODIs in South Africa, but added: “I’ve been listening on the radio in the lambing shed. Brilliant! If we can do the double, and win the Test and the one-day series, that will be a brilliant winter statement for Team England, as it is now, with such separation between the squads.”
He concedes that England had been slow to adapt to the frenetic pace of current ODIs. “The game of one-day cricket has changed over the last two years. We were slow to catch on to that. We were one year behind the revolution. The guys who have gone in now and taken it forward are brilliant to watch and exciting to watch.”
The form of England’s Test side is just as positive. “We got to No1 in the world by being really methodical, very insular, and we ground opposition down. We played to our strengths hugely. We became a very efficient side who didn’t have many bad days,” says the long-format captain.
“What is so different about this side is we can have a bad day, and we can turn it around the next day. That’s what makes it so exciting. That’s why I think everyone enjoys watching this side play. This team is definitely more exciting to watch.” It was the positive cricket played by New Zealand, and in particular their captain, Brendon McCullum, which influenced England’s positive approach to the game early last summer. Paul Farbrace was acting coach then, before Trevor Bayliss took over for the Ashes series. “It helped playing New Zealand, watching how they went about it. We knew that was the attitude they’d bring into the series,” says Cook.
“Paul and I sat down with the squad before those two games and said this is how we want to play. People saw at first hand that it worked. Maybe we learned not take ourselves too seriously. The guys just relaxed a little bit more. And with the players we’ve got at the moment, it’s definitely the best fit. Whether it’s the best fit in three years’ time, it probably won’t be, because it will be different.”
Cook, 31, is already England’s leading Test run-scorer and needs three dozen more to reach 10,000. “Another 36 runs would put it in a different league,” he says. “It’s a weird one. When Andrew Strauss got his 25th cap I thought I’d love to get 25. I had three. But goalposts change. If I played two more years, it would be close to 150 games.”
Asked if he ever thought about his place in the pantheon, he added: “I think you naturally do. I don’t think there’s anyone who isn’t worried about it. You want to score runs at the highest average you can.
“That’s what motivates you to keep driving the standards. But, he adds: “I’m not going to play another 126 Test matches. As soon as that hunger wavers a bit, your performance drops.”
Cook scored 766 runs in seven innings in Australia in 201011 - “probably the best I’ll ever bat” - and is now targeting the next Ashes series there, in 2017-18, possibly as his swansong.
“That would be phenomenal. A long way away, but certainly realistic. That would be a great way to go. I didn’t quite have my rhythm and timing in South Africa. I didn’t quite feel comfortable at the crease.”
Cook, under pressure for so long as England’s captain, though not as opening batsman, now looks more secure in the job than ever. But he says he would be happy to play for England as just another member of the team.
“The captaincy thing is brilliant, and I love it. But I didn’t start off playing cricket to captain England. I wanted to score runs and stuff. If, whenever Joe Root takes over, or whoever takes over, it would be great to support them if I still justified my place.”
Alastair Cook (R) with Ben Stokes.
