Cook needs to improve fast

 

All commentators and journalists repeat time and time again what a nice guy Alastair Cook is.   It goes without saying that as England supporters we want him to be successful.   But things are starting to look very worrying for him.

He's clearly not a natural tactician - I don't think even his greatest supporters would suggest that he's going to win England a Test with his tactics.   In the last couple of games it appears that James Anderson has been making quite a few of the more innovative field changes, which the likes of Nasser Hussain have picked up on in commentary (and Cook even mentioned in his post match interview at Lords).

So that leaves man management and leading by example/respect.   His man management is clearly not ideal because Paul Downton felt he had to come in and get rid of the most troublesome player Cook had to manage.   And his reasoning appeared to be that Cook wasn't able to manage him.

So that leaves leading by example by getting big scores.   He's now struggling there too.   It doesn't bode well does it?   I assume he'll get the whole summer to come good, but he's got to start getting runs asap, even if he leaves much of the man management off the pitch to Moores and much of the fielding positioning to Anderson.   If only he could also pass on bowling changes to someone else too!   Fingers crossed the England hierarchy find a way through this muddle.