England's Opening Dilemma

England’s squad for the Fourth Test against India has been announced and other than the inclusion of James Vince to cover Jonnie Bairstow, there were no tough decisions for the selectors. One issue which has been wandering into focus involves one of England’s longest serving players.

Alistair Cook will go down in history as one of England’s best batsmen, yet his recent performances could beg the question of how long the former captain has at the top of the game. In the five innings so far in the series, Cook has scored just 80 runs with a top score of just 29.

This failure with the bat is something which, for other batsmen in the past, would mean a swift discharge from the side. Plenty of Cook’s opening partners have bit the dust for a lack of runs, so why hasn’t England’s highest test match run scorer gone the same way?

In the short, Cook’s almost complete immunity from the selectors guillotine comes from the fact that those making the cuts have not found a genuine replacement for Andrew Strauss. Cook and Strauss were a solid opening partnership for many years, arguably their best series coming in the 3-1 Ashes victory in Australia. The pair scored over 1,000 runs in a memorable series, but since Strauss retired in 2012 things haven’t gone to plan for the plethora of English batsman tasked with replacing him. Keaton Jennings is currently getting his second run in the side but has only managed 14 more runs than Cook in the three tests against India so far. Evidently, English opening batsmen are not having a good time of it at present.

Now that Cook is no longer captain, there is even less reason for his poor form to go without deeper discussion. It’s no secret that he has struggled this summer, but rather than him being kept in the side any longer it could be time for Cook to make way for a new face. It has reached the point where it will be worth taking the bold move of having two fresh batsmen at the top of the order. Would Jennings keep his place, on present showing perhaps not. Whether this would be two batsmen yet to play for the national side, or two who have been given a shot in the past, remains to be seen. Some International experience is better than none, is the strong argument there.

One thing which can’t be debated is that Cook isn’t far away from retiring as an international player. Yes, it isn’t an immediate concern. However, it is something which needs to be addressed soon; particularly due to the recent poor form of Jennings and Cook recently. The ideal situation would be to have an opener in good form playing with confidence before Cook calls it a day. If Cook and Jennings can find some runs in the last two matches of the series, then it will be a significant step towards securing confidence in the England side in both the short term and looking into the future. Runs to both help England to secure the series win this summer and to show that the coming years can be more positive for English test openers.