Cook crucial for England in India: Flower
England cricket head coach Andy Flower feels the maturity of their one-day skipper Alastair Cook will prove vital to team's success in the forthcoming series against India.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: October 02, 2011 07:25 PM IST
England cricket head coach Andy Flower feels the maturity of their one-day skipper Alastair Cook will prove vital to team's success in the forthcoming series against India.
England will fly out to India on Monday, with Cook looking to repeat the team's success at home. England play five ODI against India, beginning on October 8 at Hyderabad.
Cook's place in the side at one point was questioned, but he proved his critics wrong with prolific scoring this year and then steered his side to an impressive series victory over India.
Flower called Cook an "excellent" leader.
"He's been excellent as a leader and grown in confidence," Flower said.
"On the tour of Bangladesh, when he captained while Andrew Strauss was resting, he grew and learned a lot and I'd say we've seen similar growth this summer."
"It's always nice to see someone grow in confidence. It's horrible to see anyone lose confidence in any walk of life."
"So the opposite, seeing someone grow in confidence, is a really nice thing, particularly for us as coaches, " he added.
Meanwhile, Flower feels the policy of having three different captains for the three formats can prove beneficial for the team in the future, keeping in view their performance in the last six months.
While Andrew Strauss captains the Test team, Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad lead the One-day and Twenty20 sides.
Flower said the move represented something of a gamble, but he believes that the project will help the team in the long run.
"I always thought one captain would be a lot simpler and better," Flower was quoted as saying in the Daily Express.
"When we started with the three captains it was pretty much forced upon us."
"But we did think it could succeed if we worked hard to make it work. It still remains to be seen if it's the right system or not."
He, however, said the move gave them a "very healthy" six months.
"It went well in the summer. Strauss led the Test team brilliantly as always. Cook, I thought, handled the pressure around the one-day captaincy incredibly well when he was questioned even by ex-England captains about his place as a One-day player, let alone captain," he said.
"He responded to that pressure very well and is starting to show that he'll be a very good One-day player and captain for England."
"Stuart Broad had two little bites at leadership. He's learnt a lot through the season even though he's only captained twice."
"You can see that in the changing room and the way he speaks to the team. I think you can see it in the way he handles himself in the field."
"It's been a very healthy six months for us."