Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has no doubts that captain Alastair Cook will overcome his struggles with the bat and on the field to enjoy fresh success as Test skipper.
Fletcher, who had been in charge when Cook made his England debut, compared Cook's position to that of former Australia captain Mark Taylor, who went through a lean time with the bat before re-asserting himself.
According to Sport24, Fletcher, who is now in charge of India, England's next opponents in a five-Test series that starts at Nottingham's Trent Bridge ground on July 9, said that one of the two things that struck him was that Cook was a very intelligent cricketer who understood the game.
Fletcher said that he remembers talking in one of the very first team meetings Cook came to, he had just been flown across from the West Indies, and they asked about someone, and he quite confidently stood up and said this player does this, and this player does that.
Fletcher added that there are very few players prepared to commit to something like that at such an early stage in the England squad.
Fletcher also said that the next thing that struck him was that Cook is a very determined, which he feels opening batsmen have to be.
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The former Zimbabwe captain has urged England to stick with Cook, stating the example of Australia ultimately gaining from doing just that when Taylor was struggling for runs in the early 1990s after a prolific spell.
Cook has not scored a Test ton for 24 innings, a sequence that now extends to more than a year, and found both his technique and tactics under scrutiny as England succumbed to a 100-run defeat by Sri Lanka in the second Test at Headingley, the report added.