Cook best man to lead England in Ashes: Strauss

Andrew Strauss, former England batsman and the current team director of the England team, in an interview today said that Alastair Cook is the best man to lead the team in the upcoming Ashes series. Although, he added, his future as captain at the end of the series is still not guaranteed.

Strauss had made a couple of tough yet bold decisions when he sacked coach Peter Moores and dropped curtains on star-batsman Kevin Pietersen’s hopes of making a comeback to the English team. Strauss made a firm statement that sentiments shall hold no role in making big and crucial decisions for the national team.

“I said at the start of the summer that Alastair Cook was very much the man to take English Test cricket forward. He’s had two matches and batted and captained well. So my opinion hasn’t changed,” Strauss said adding, “But none of us knows what the future holds and what will happen over the next five Tests. It would be wrong to speculate on what happens after this series but at the moment he’s very much the right man.”

Strauss, who has played side-by-side with Cook and has opened for England in many Test matches also sounded convinced that the Ashes series will bring the best out of Cook. He sounded optimistic about Cook’s performance saying, “He’s incredibly motivated by this series and from a personal and team level this is a very important series for him. He enters it in a better frame of mind than he has for some time.”

The first Ashes Test will be played in Cardiff starting July 8. Currently, visitors Australia retain the Ashes urn, after crushing  England at home 5-0. England will be hoping for vengeance this time around. Cook will come out a hero or villain, depending on the series’ results.