India’s tour of England: Prior relieves himself of national duties, Cook retains captaincy

New Delhi: Reeling under the aftermath of their seventh defeat in nine Tests, England have retained faith in their beleaguered skipper, even as wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior has recused himself for rest of the season owing to injuries and indifferent form. 

 

Cook, it must be noted, has been under intense pressure for a while. His loss at Lord’s is preceded by a 1-0 series loss to Sri Lanka at home, and a 5-0 Ashes rout in Australia. To make matters worse, his own form with bat has been woeful, to say the least. In his last 10 Test innings, the England skipper has managed to cross the fifty-run mark just once, and has scored just 180 runs. 

 

Cook, however, is not willing to go down without a fight. 

 

“Until that bloke taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘We don’t want you to captain’, I’m desperate to try to turn this around for England,” The Telegraph quotes the English skipper as saying. 

 

“If I’m not scoring runs by the end of the series and we’re losing more games it becomes tougher and tougher doesn’t it and I’m clearly not the man to turn it around.

 

“I have been talking to Mooresy (Peter Moores, the England head coach) over the last couple of days in tough times and me and him think we can turn it around. If I’m not good enough at the end of the summer then so be it, but I’m trying my heart out to do this,” he added.

 

Prior, on the other hand, has voluntarily relinquished his place in the side, owing to injuries.  The 32-year old, however, is not quitting the game yet. 

 

“The decision I’ve made is that I’m unavailable for the rest of this series due to my fitness,” The Telegraph quotes Prior, who will undergo surgery on his Achilles in an attempt to save his career.

 

“I’m not retiring or anything like that, I would still love to play for England and I still know what I can offer England, but right now I’m not physically able to be at the level I need to be in order to perform at my level.

 

“I’m not doing justice to myself and more importantly the team and that is what matters first and foremost.

 

“I’ve had a combination of injuries that have had an impact. My Achilles, everyone knows about and is an ongoing problem and my goal was to get it to a manageable place. I tore my quad before the first Test and my right hand has been beaten to a pulp, but the main issue is the Achilles. Now we have the time, I want to be proactive about how we deal with it so I imagine that I’ll have an operation,” he added.

 

Jos Buttler, the 23-year old wicketkeeper-batsman has been roped in as Prior’s replacement for the Southampton Test. The Lancashire cricketer has played 33 ODIs and 36 T20s for England in his three year international career, and will certainly make his Test debut on Sunday. 

 

Image: Cook is under intense pressure to save his captaincy

 NEI India