England’s director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, feels Alastair Cook will stay on as the test captain well into the summer of 2017, stating that the 31-year-old is handling the responsibility quite well.
There was speculation over Cook’s captaincy ahead of England’s tour of India after he told the Cricketer magazine that he did not know “how much longer I am going to carry on. It could be two months, it could be a year.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of the second Test in Visakhapatnam, Strauss, also Cook’s former teammate, ruled out such a possibility.
“He’s batting well and he’s still young. It is quite scary how young he is really and I have every faith that he will carry on past this series and into the summer,” Strauss was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“He is in a really good place... very comfortable leading this team for a while. So, it probably takes less out of him now than it used to.”
Strauss said that Cook has many years left to continue doing well with the bat and mentor youngsters.