Selectors are right to give Cook time
ALASTAIR COOK is clearly lacking in confidence at the moment but the England selectors are right to keep faith with him.
He is struggling to make his mind up which deliveries to play and which to leave, and the ones he is playing he is doing so with hesitancy.
But upsetting the applecart now, with no natural replacement ready to step in, would not help the situation and the selectors have done the right thing in backing him and giving him time to play his way out of this rut. That said, if Cook’s form is not rectified by the time Ian Bell comes back from injury then England do have a big decision to make ahead of the Ashes series this winter.
Cook is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, batsman to have gone through a period like this – yet he is only one innings away from rediscovering his form. He may not even need a century at The Oval in this third Test with Pakistan, it may be that a 60 or 70 could help lift his self-belief and put him back in the right frame of mind for the Ashes.
The Oval is renouned as a good batting track, so this is a good opportunity for Cook to make his mark.
England are in a very good place right now and if they can win the toss and put 450 on
the board, then it will look very grim indeed for the tourists.