Captain Cook might not be ready to throw in the towel immediately, yet he believes that Joe Root is ready to take over his role.
After a confidence-boosting first Test, the next three outings have been an alarmingly downward spiral for England captain Alastair Cook.
The England captain has made selection blunders – playing three spinners in Mohali on a lesser spin-friendly pitch and two on a turning one here – as well as tactical errors on the field, like taking Adil Rashid off the attack while he was enticing Murali Vijay into false shots at the end of second day. To add to that, runs from the southpaw's willow have dried up as the series has gone by.
The culmination of errors couldn't have come at a worse time for the 31-year-old, who many believe has outlived his captaincy stint. The crushing series loss to India will only add to the heat on the opener when he sits down with England's director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, to take stalk of his future.
"Yes, of course, you have questions," Cook said on Monday when asked if the series defeat makes it harder for him to remain as England captain. "Naturally, you look at stuff. India is a hard place to tour, certainly with the balance of our squad in terms of where our strengths lie.
"I will sit down with Straussy in the New Year like we have made the pact to do to talk honestly and openly about stuff. My position has not changed if we had won this game or lost this game," he added.
Captain Cook might not be ready to throw in the towel immediately, yet he believes that Joe Root is ready to take over his role.
"I think Joe Root is ready to captain England. You never know until you actually experience it, the whole thing that comes with the England captaincy. You are thrown in at the deep end and you sink or swim. It is as simple as that. Nothing can prepare you for it.
"He is ready because he is a clued up guy, he has the respect of everyone in the changing room. He has not got much captaincy experience but that does not mean everything," Cook said.
Cook's current England squad looks a pale shadow of the one that conquered India in 2012. The difference, according to the skipper, is the quality of spinners in his armoury. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann picked up 37 wickets among themselves in the four Tests four years ago. Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid have taken 31 in as many Tests so far.
"No disrespect to Mo and Rash but Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were world-class bowlers in 2012," Cook said. "In these conditions you need that. Mo and Rash have bowled well but they are not yet in that league of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar. I do not mean that disrespectfully at all and that is why we need a slightly different balance to the side. In 2012, we could play the four bowlers – two seamers and two spinners – but in this side we need more options."
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