Tuesday 8 July 2014
India's tour of England 2014
Alastair Cook says his England captaincy should not be blamed for his poor form with the bat & he will lead from the front when the five-match Test series against India begins at Nottingham on Wednesday, 9th July.
Cook has not scored a Test ton in 24 innings since his 130 against NZ at Headingley in May 2013 and scoring just 78 runs in 4 innings against SL last month.
But he told a news conference on Tuesday that he does not feel out of form, despite coming under pressure not just for his scarcity of runs but also a lack of attacking instinct as captain.
"I never have felt that I've been hitting the ball particularly badly this summer - I scored some runs for Essex at the beginning of the season and I haven't managed to transform that into runs for England," he said.
"I know how important it is at the top of the order to do that and I'm desperately keen to lead from the front and score some runs.
"As a batter especially, you're in there because you are one of the top 6 batters in the country and your job is to score the runs to set up the game for England. Doesn't matter if you're captain or not.
"I haven't been doing that over the last year or so, and no-one's keener than me to put that right," he added. "I know I've got to score runs at the top of the order in this series."
Cook did not think leading the team had interfered with his job of laying a strong platform for England's middle order, his side failing to register a win in their past 8 Tests & slump to series defeat to Aussies & SL.
Rahul Dravid has been asked to mentor the younger players as they look to win their 1st Test overseas since 2011.
"We wanted a mentor with the side who can talk about his past experience, a lot of stuff but not just talking about technical things," wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni told reporters.
"A lot of it is [Dravid] interacting with the youngsters, & they are comfortable talking to him.
"We noticed that in South Africa. He was part of the commentary team and they'd go up to him and approach him, have a chat whether it's cricket or something else."
