India vs England: Alastair Cook says Joe Root 'is ready' to captain side as he throws his own future into doubt

The fifth Test on Friday could be his final as captain

Root is already vice-captain of the Test side (Getty)

Alastair Cook has admitted he is considering his future as England captain and says Joe Root is ready to lead the team if he was to leave the job in the New Year.

Cook was speaking after his side lost the fourth Test against India by an innings and 36 runs in Mumbai.

It was a defeat that has seen the hosts take an unassailable 3-0 series lead with one match to go. The final Test in Chennai starting on Friday could very well be Cook’s last as captain.

The opener has been in charge of the Test team for more than four years and he will sit down with Andrew Strauss, England’s director of cricket, next month to discuss whether he will remain in the post ahead of next summer’s home series against South Africa and West Indies as well as the Ashes in Australia beyond that.

After being quoted before this series began that it could be his last, Cook denied he had any plans at all to walk away from the job.

However, he has admitted his future as captain is now in question.

“Yes, of course you have questions,” said Cook. “Naturally you look at stuff. I will sit down with Straussy at the end of the year like we have made the pact to do to talk honestly and openly about stuff.”

But it was Cook’s glowing backing of Root, England’s vice-captain, which was particularly telling.

“I think Joe Root is ready to captain England,” he said. “You never know until you actually experience it. The whole thing that comes with the England captaincy. You are thrown in at the deep end and you kind of sink or swim. It is as simple as that. Nothing can prepare you for it. “He is ready because he is a clued-up guy, he has the respect of everyone in the changing room. He has not got much captaincy experience but that does not mean everything.

“Being captain of England is a huge honour, a huge privilege. You are at the forefront of the team and it comes onto your shoulders when you win or lose. In the heat of the battle you make those decisions.

“You go to bed at night and you have to live with making good or bad decisions. As a bloke to be asked to lead your country is a huge honour personally. I am very proud to do it and we will got to Chennai as a group of players and it will be tough with momentum against us but if we can just grab every opportunity we have got a chance.”

Cook will talk with Strauss at the end of the year (Getty)

Many of Cook’s on-field decisions, particularly during this match, have been questioned.

Yet he has defended his record and took a light-hearted dig at those who have criticised his judgment.

“You make decisions on the spot on what you think is right at the time,” he said. “As always in these decisions there is hindsight. You guys are the best captains you can ever be sat 150 yards away with cups of tea, biscuits, computers, Twitter, you name it you are the best captains there.

“Over my captaincy career I have made decisions that have been proved right and the wrong decisions.”

Cook also criticised India’s sledging of James Anderson in the closing stages of this match, England’s No11 batsman was confronted by Ravichandran Ashwin and then Virat Kohli as he came out to the middle.

Anderson had criticised Kohli in his post-match press conference on the fourth evening of this Test, claiming that despite the India captain’s double hundred here he still had the technical flaws in his batting that saw him average only 13.40 in his team’s series defeat in England two years ago.

Anderson has faith that Cook will remain as captain (Getty)

“It was a bit of a sour end really,” said Cook. “It was disappointing. It was clearly reference to what Jimmy said yesterday which has kind of been blown out of all proportions which it can do here. He was just stating a fact which if you asked Virat is probably quite true. But, yes, it was obviously just sticking up for their captain, which I thought was slightly unnecessary.”

Kohli hit back at Anderson with a veiled dig when asked if he would like to criticise the technique of England’s batsmen in sub-continental conditions. “I’m not going to sit here and comment about someone else’s faults,” said Kohli. “We focus on our strengths, we accept defeat pretty gracefully. So I’m not going to sit here and play sarcastic mind games.”

On the sledging of Anderson, Kohli claimed he acted in the role of peace-maker.

“For the first time I was trying to calm things down in the middle at a time when James Anderson is involved,” he said. “Ashwin wasn’t pleased with what he said in the press and he let him know, not using any bad words, honestly.

“I think he told me he was pretty disappointed with what he said and it is important to accept defeat as it is. Later on I told James these things happen and lets move on.”