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Moores: Cook’s strong enough to retain England captaincy

National team coach believes captain has what it takes

by Our Sports Desk

Peter Moores is confident Alastair Cook will “stay strong” in adversity to restate his case as England captain and opening batsman.

Cook remains under mounting pressure after the drawn first Investec Test against India at Nottingham, where his England team extended their sequence without a win to nine matches stretching back 11 months.

He could also muster only five runs, taking his annual tally to a meagre 97 in seven attempts, before he was freakishly bowled round his legs off the underside of his thigh pad.

England coach Moores has no doubt, however, that Cook — England’s all-time most prolific centurion and Moores’s general after last winter’s shambolic Ashes whitewash — will put things right.

There is precious little time to regroup before the second Test at Lord’s on Thursday for either man, or indeed a pace attack who bowled 222 overs in a stalemate on one of the slowest pitches ever prepared for international cricket in this country.

Cook’s form remains the most pressing concern, but Moores does not find it difficult to keep the faith.

“It is a tough time when you are not getting runs,” he said.

“But Alastair is a tough player, as he has shown throughout his career.

“It is a five-match series, and in a five-match series I expect Alastair to come through strongly — because he is a top-flight player. He has to stay strong.”

Cook conceivably made some of his own trouble at Trent Bridge, where he moved markedly across his stumps before suffering evident misfortune against Mohammed Shami.

Moores said: “It was an extraordinary dismissal.

“It happens in cricket — you maybe get one in a career, two if you are unlucky.

“To get one when you desperately need a score is tough. I hope that’s the end of it for him now, and he gets a few breaks.”

Cook is no stranger to loss of form — no batsman is, because it is an occupational hazard — and he has made a lifelong habit of rediscovering the run-scoring knack with power to add.

“He has been through this situation before, and that is what makes great Test players — they can ride through it and come back strong,” added Moores.

“He will be very keen to put his mark on Lord’s.”

“What I have been impressed with Alastair is that during a really tough time for him, I think he has grown rapidly as a captain and person around the team.”

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