Will India be Cook's Waterloo?

The good news for Alastair Cook, now that he has vowed to stand firm as England captain in the wake of their historic home Test series loss to Sri Lanka, is that he needs only wait two weeks for a chance to turn that stoicism into runs.

The bad news is that his batting is so badly out of sorts, his leadership under such intense scrutiny and his mind so clearly clouded by concerns arising from those pressures that 14 days seems hardly long enough to deal with the demons and start afresh.

The last-gasp nature of England’s loss to Sri Lanka at Headingley helped cloud the reality that they were never going to win the match or the series after their forgettable fourth day.

And on paper, if not on the verdant turf of Trent Bridge where the first of the coming five Tests against India begins on July 9, MS Dhoni’s team presents a far sterner challenge than the “glorified County attack” as ex-England captain Michael Vaughan mockingly referred to Sri Lanka.

Unlike their near neighbours prior to the overnight result at Headingley, India has won Test series on English soil – as recently as 2007 – and have just usurped their upcoming opponents on the ICC World Test rankings, moving into fourth position as England slide to fifth, with Sri Lanka one place further down.

Quick Single: Captain Cook remains steadfast

So having conceded, in the aftermath of the 100-run loss in the second and deciding Test against Sri Lanka, that his future as captain rests solely on his ability to end his own batting slump, Cook has heaped more pressure on himself to deliver individual and team success.

“My own form is tough, I have to go back to basics, work hard and I've got 10 days to get prepared for India,” he said post-match at Headingley.

“If I keep losing form and matches I won't be asked to captain for much longer but I'm determined to make it right."

For some highly-credentialed opinion shapers, that moment should already have passed.

Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott, a sharp critic of Cook’s tactics throughout the five-nil Ashes whitewash in Australia last summer, believes the England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to back Cook as the man to lead the team’s new era has already backfired.

“Cook is too stubborn an individual to resign because he would see it as a sign of weakness,” Boycott wrote in The Telegraph newspaper in the UK.

“(ECB Managing Director Paul) Downton, (selection chairman James) Whitaker and (coach Peter) Moores have hung their hats on him taking England forward so if they were to sack him so quickly after all they have said about the new era, it would be embarrassing for them.

“So we are stuck with him.

“But they can be as supportive as they want and he can be as stubborn as he wants but if he fails with the bat in the first Test against India … and we lose again, then public opinion and the media will be so vocal he may be hounded out.”

Mike Selvey, the ex-England fast bowler now cricket correspondent for The Guardian, also acknowledged Cook’s intransigence as one of the characteristics that has enabled him to become England’s fifth-highest Test runs scorer, now just 56 behind the recently dumped Kevin Pietersen.

But Selvey believes Cook’s captaincy woes cannot be fixed until the shortcomings in his batting are addressed, and for that reason he might be best served by quitting as England’s one-day skipper – another suggestion that Cook has previously dismissed – to help resurrect his Test game.

“It seems that his lack of batting touch, which is surely technical rather than simply a matter of form, is exacerbated now by the yoke of captaincy,” Selvey wrote today.

“Cook is not an intuitive captain and never will be but that does not make him an inherently bad one.

“Rather he looks to lead by example, the agenda set with the bat.

“A personal view remains that it would be to his benefit as a world-class Test batsman of high achievement if he were to cede the captaincy of the one-day side, even if that subsequently meant losing his place in it.

“His stubbornness is not the least of the qualities that has made him the batsman he has been.

“But it could prevent him from making a rational decision if it comes to that.”

England’s other significant problem, as Cook acknowledged after the Headingley Test when he claimed his team “probably had the better of (the series) but lost the crucial moments” is that at an individual level – with the skipper excepted – they are not playing badly.

The fresh faces brought in to the XI after the Ashes – opener Sam Robson, batting allrounder Moeen Ali and seamer Liam Plunkett – all excelled at Headingley, while Joe Root who lost his place and his way in Australia returned with a fine double-century in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.

Gary Ballance, who made his Test debut in the final Ashes contest last summer, continues to impress at No.3 and averaged 67 against Sri Lanka, and the skills that Chris Jordan showed with bat, ball and hands in last summer’s Carlton Mid ODI series have translated to the Test arena.

And as for the old hands, Ian Bell again looked at ease without producing a big score, Stuart Broad became the first Englishman in almost 140 years to complete a second Test hat-trick and James Anderson was leading wicket-taker and man of the series though he will be best remembered as Sri Lanka’s vital final scalp.

Even recycled wicketkeeper Matt Prior defied opinion that he should make way for a younger protégé by averaging 46 with the bat and claiming 14 catches in two games.

Quick Single: Sri Lanka snatch historic victory

So wholesale personnel changes, often the temptation when a team is undergoing the sort of transition England has embraced by dumping Pietersen and losing Graeme Swann and Jonathan Trott, are unlikely at least for the opening Test against India.

Former England captain Mike Atherton has called for the inclusion of a specialist spinner – perhaps even the enigmatic Monty Panesar – for the India series, as well as for patience from restless England fans whose cricket team’s failure only compounded another wretched football World Cup effort.

Perhaps they would be advised to adopt Cook’s philosophy of digging in, hanging tough and putting the disappointments into stark perspective.

“We lost this Test match from a really bad day yesterday (day four),” Cook said after perhaps his most painful defeat as skipper.

“Simple deal.”