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Is it time for Alastair Cook to retire?

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MenInG

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This is his last few innings for England - does he still warrant a place in the England side?

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Should he do the honourable thing and leave the scene?
 
Yes he still has a lot of gas left. Legends like Cook decide themselves when they retire, not so called experts like us.
 
Cook is not even 34. Physically he is fine , fitness should not be a issue with him as he only plays test matches. He is getting inconsistent but has ability to score a big one to offset series of poor scores. A poor Ashes will get him in trouble with selector.
 
Next two tests against will be important .

If he scores it will make it easier for England.
 
Cook has gone through these barren spells of scoring before making a comeback and "silencing the critics" but as you get older and your reflexes slow down, it gets harder to keep doing that.

I know it's difficult to open in England when the ball is seaming and swinging around as we've seen this summer. However Cook has been struggling away too.

Mark Butcher raised an interesting point about England's opening conundrum, saying it doesn't help Cook's junior partner finding his feet in international cricket when the experienced batsman at the other end is struggling himself !

I don't see how moving him down to 3 will help as given England are regularly losing early wickets he'd be practically opening anyway. If he can't make runs playing at the position where he's scored over 10k runs then he can't make the side.
 
There is news that he might miss the 4th Test because his wife is due to give birth.
 
I think yes, he should retire by the end of the series.

But there is a Sri Lanka series coming up. Surely, he will play spin better than any youngster.
 
Loss of form is one thing, but unfortunately for Cook it is very apparent he has lost his eye. Shouldn,t prolong it now.
 
Selectors can simply Axe him. He has been stripped of the captaincy for a while and should have had enough time to sort his batting out.
 
I have no idea who would replace him so he may as well stay now. England have got through more openers recently than a Uni student goes through takeaways!
 
He literally had the same figures before THAT double hundred and the same figures before the double hundred before THAT double hundred and the one before that.

Last 2 years he has been surviving on these huge double hundreds with nothing in between.

Too high a failure rate to be opening for a top team.
 
jeetu said:
Cook is not even 34. Physically he is fine , fitness should not be a issue with him as he only plays test matches. He is getting inconsistent but has ability to score a big one to offset series of poor scores. A poor Ashes will get him in trouble with selector.
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Mental fitness is also a thing. He is not there mentally.
 
Having a decent opening partner may give him more confidence, but that isn't happening away. He should retire, unless he wants to stay for records :srt
 
Yes. His eyes have gone. I think his hunger has gone. Time to leave cricket and concentrate on his family and his farm.
 
he has been awful for a while, but England have no other options and he doesn't want to go just yet.

a big knock once in a while is what is saving him
and the fact that England have no one else except Root/Bairstow that are actually decent
 
Hes been very poor for the last 2 years bar a handful of innings

I think hes done for N should retire asap
 
Cook still has some left in the tank. But I suspect we will have to wait till the Ashes for it to come good
 
It's over.

In the past two years, he's played 26 matches while averaging 34.59 (3 100s, 5 50s).

That's a prolonged and steep 11 point drop compared to his career average. If you take out that big 244*, his average drops to a horrible 29.40.
 
Out of all the batsmen who have scored 10,000 plus test runs, Cook's batting average now is the lowest at 45.
That's understandable cause being an opener, he faces the new ball in challenging batting conditions. But still in the last 15 years batting has become a lot easier than before.

A very good opening batsman no doubt but nowhere close to being an ATG or a legent like Sunil Gavaskar
 
Give him the rest of the series to prove himself one last time, and if he still fails then yes he should hang his boots.
 
Yes he should retire. He has been given more than enough time to prove he can still perform. And he has failed. Time to move on.
 
Nothing much coming from him at a time when England needed him to be on top of his game.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Alastair Cook's Test record in 2018:<br>Innings 15<br>Runs 286<br>Fifties 1<br>Hundreds 0<br>Average 19.07<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1035217829224693761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
He is definitely going through an extended dry spell but it is nothing new. He will come back from it with another massive hundred and keep grinding it out. He will retire when he feels like retiring which I don't think is anytime especially soon (he will definitely go until the next Ashes). Regardless, it isn't as if anybody is banging the door down at the top of the English order
 
Thought he looked good today and had a relatively ok pitch to get some runs on.

With Jennings the fraud opener around, England can't afford to boot Cook. Besides, he's earned the luxury of being backed now, because if he is dropped, I don't see him at 33 doing a Ganguly and trying to make a comeback.

But despite his England legend status, I don't think he's as invaluable to the team as say a Sachin, Dravid or Dhoni who could be given an extended run at the fag end of their careers just for the pearls of wisdom they handed down to the younger lot. I hardly see him discussing anything with his non-striker unlike a Sachin who would be always brimming with ideas and opinions.
 
Another failure at a crucial time....Clock ticking...
 
Not sure if his heart’s really in it anymore.

His hunger for runs seems to have dried up.
 
Dude's a walking wicket. Literal tailender now.

And some folks were saying he is an ATG..smh
 
James said:
Not sure if his heart’s really in it anymore.

His hunger for runs seems to have dried up.
Click to expand...

Don't think it's heart or hunger; it's simply down to technique.

Through his long career he has never demonstrated that he has the ability to consistently play decent pace bowling.

I can't think of a single series where he has dominated high standard pace bowling in his entire career. If you can find one then let me know.
 
Cook when going through a rough patch in the past has had the ability to produce a career saving knock.

Now that looks like it's beyond him. England need to find two openers now.
 
CricketTruth said:
Don't think it's heart or hunger; it's simply down to technique.

Through his long career he has never demonstrated that he has the ability to consistently play decent pace bowling.

I can't think of a single series where he has dominated high standard pace bowling in his entire career. If you can find one then let me know.
Click to expand...

An attack of Johnson, Harris and Siddle in Australia is pretty high standard, and 760+ runs in one series do not come easy against them.

However, there is no doubt that he has struggled for consistency against good pace attacks, but he would still find a way to come up with a big knock.

That seems beyond him now. The end is near for him. A great player with a record breaking career, but everyone has to go one day. I don’t see any point in him extending his career and scoring easy runs in Sri Lanka and West Indies, only to fail against Australia next summer.
 
England are struggling to find cook a decent opening partner never mind drop him. If england had found a decent replacement opener or even two cook would have been dropped ages ago. Cook will be in team until ashes next year and then will retire or be dropped.
 
England have waited long enough for him to regain form. If he isn't going to retire he should be dropped but England will keep on picking him.
 
Amjid Javed said:
England are struggling to find cook a decent opening partner never mind drop him. If england had found a decent replacement opener or even two cook would have been dropped ages ago. Cook will be in team until ashes next year and then will retire or be dropped.
Click to expand...

It’s an investment decision. These new young openers failing around Cook are a future investment for England nonetheless. Cook is a clear liability.
 
Whether he retires or not, is upto him. Whether he's dropped is another thing. If he hasn't scored alot of runs maybe he could use a break or potentially go back to county cricket. The problem would be that it would take time for a suitable replacement to start scoring runs. Maybe a break could do good for him.
 
Rumors are circulating that he'll retire after the Oval Test.
 
He has confirmed his retirement. Sad to see him go. Was imo the best test opener post 2000 after graeme smith/Sehwag.
 
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