England woes has Cook's rein in focus

As Alastair Cook trudged off having been dismissed cheaply in England’s second innings of this fourth Test he looked a defeated man. 

Cook had also burned a review in trying to save himself from the lbw decision given against him after he failed to read Ravindra Jadeja.

The England skipper misjudged the length and the pace of the ball sent down by India’s left-arm spinner.

It was an apt metaphor for his on-field captaincy during India’s marathon first innings, Cook off the pace and looking lost as the series slipped away from his team.

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As a crestfallen Cook departed with England teetering at 2-43, the contrast with Virat Kohli was stark. India’s captain had left the field barely two hours earlier like a conquering hero following his record-busting double hundred that helped his side post a match-winning 631.

Kohli can do no wrong at the moment. Cook, it seems, can barely get anything to go his way right now. What a contrast also from his first assignment as full-time Test captain in India in 2012, when Cook’s three hundreds led England to their first series win here in 27 years.

That seemed a long time ago as England spent 182 punishing overs in the field in the searing Mumbai heat.

And nine weeks into a tough sub-continental tour that will see England play seven Tests before Christmas, Cook must now seriously be considering giving up the captaincy.

Cook was forced to deny he was already thinking along these lines before the series began.

On the eve of the opening Test in Rajkot, an interview in The Cricketer magazine emerged which quoted him as saying: "Deep down I don’t know how much longer I am going to carry on. It could be two months, it could be a year."

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However, Cook shot down talk he was considering his position then. “It was just an honest answer to a question that is hard to answer,” he said. “How long do you go on for? You don’t know. It could be two months, six months, two years. 

“The headline’s been made, like everything, but for a while now we’ve always said we look at it series by series.

“My situation hasn’t changed, no one is talking about it in the dressing room. It’s a mountain out of a mole hill.”

The opener will sit down with Andrew Strauss, his predecessor as captain and now England’s director of cricket, in the New Year to discuss the captaincy.

At 31, he has plenty of time left to play Test cricket and like Australia’s Ricky Ponting, there’s no reason why he can’t go back into the ranks and enjoy a productive last few years at the top.

But the decision needs to be made in January because if Cook is to stay on it will need to be until the end of the Ashes series in Australia next year.

If Cook and England decide he is the man to see things through until then that’s fair enough. Yet Joe Root, the man who will take over when Cook stands down or is sacked, needs a run into that Ashes series if he is to take on the job.

Root’s fine 77 that briefly gave England hope of saving this match, offered another contrast with his team’s luckless leader.

Cook has already spent more than four years in the job and has led England now in 58 Tests – more matches than any of his predecessors.

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He has nothing to prove and other than Michael Vaughan, England’s successful 2005 Ashes-winning captain, and Nasser Hussain has spent more time in the job than any of his recent predecessors.

Vaughan and Hussain spent almost five years as captain each.

Cook outlasting that pair seems remote at this stage.

Having been persuaded to stay on by his wife Alice when he was considering quitting the post during a difficult Northern summer in 2014, Cook may now decide the stresses and strains of the job are too much, especially with a young family at home now and a ready-made replacement in Root.

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But James Anderson, Cook’s long-time friend and team-mate, believes his time may not be done yet.

Asked if he thought Cook would continue beyond this series, Anderson said: “I’ve no idea, I hope so. He’s still very keen to be England captain as far as I’m aware, I still think he want to be. 

“I know I’m biased because I’m his good friend, but I think he’s still a very good captain.”

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