Alastair Cook keen to regain consistency

Alastair Cook is keen to regain consistency ahead of the side’s big home Test series against Pakistan and India in the summer.

Cook, England’s highest run-getter in Test cricket, averages 38.84 since the start of 2017, as against a career average of 45.73. However, those numbers are propped up by two big double-centuries last year, and hide the fact that he’s crossed 50 just four times.

He made 243 against Windies and 244 in the Ashes in Melbourne, but collected just 23 runs as England lost the two-Test series in New Zealand earlier this year.

“In New Zealand, I just never got going. That tour kind of passed me by,” rued Cook. “It is frustrating when you go all that way, you train, and you just don’t turn up.

“It does happen. If you play 100-odd Test matches, there’s going to be little periods when you don’t score runs, and I’ve always managed to turn it around. But the last six months … I’ve never been quite so inconsistent.”

Cook said that following his slump, he had been re-examining how he prepared for games. Despite the 12,028 runs and the experience of 150-plus matches behind him, he knew his game was still a work in progress.

“One thing I do know is that it doesn’t get any easier,” he said. “I remember talking to a psychologist about Jacques Kallis – he’d just scored his 12,000th run – and saying, he’s cracked the game, he can just turn up and bat. And the bloke said to me: mate, you’re wrong. If you ever get there, it’ll be just as hard as when you started.”

England have brought in a new national selector in Ed Smith, even as they restructure the selection process. Cook knows that given his form, he will be under pressure to prove himself. But he insisted his drive to play for England was not diminished.

“My job never changes,” he said. “It’s to score runs at the top of the order. And if you don’t, well, there have been times throughout my career where people have questioned my place like they’re questioning it now.

“If someone taps me on the shoulder and tells me they don’t want me to open the batting for England, it’s going to hurt at this precise moment of time because I want to carry on. But it's his job, and I very much understand. I am sure he (Smith) will have some different ideas so we will wait and see.”