No reason to doubt Cook

Alastair Cook is an excellent choice as England’s one-day captain writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph, and will be as effective a leader as Andrew Strauss. What’s more, his one-day batting will soon prove to be considerably better than Strauss’s, and he might even make the Twenty20 side again.

Cook is the man. He will prove his batting worth too. His overall ODI record may not be outstanding, but his last outing in Bangladesh was telling.

Recent evidence has proved that to be a tricky place to play in one-day cricket, but, in captaining three victories, Cook made 64, 60 & 32 from his three innings, with a strike-rate of nearly 91, higher than that of his partner Craig Kieswetter (86), who made a century in that series.

Vic Marks in the Observer argues that the new, improved opening batsman in Alastair Cook is worthy of a place in the one-day side even if he is not captain.

There are concerns that the job might diminish Cook at Test level. But this argument could be applied to any of the other candidates. We do know that Cook enjoyed the task when he took charge of the one-day side in Bangladesh. In three matches he averaged 52 with a strike-rate of 90 and he is supposed to be weak against spin, the one area in which Bangladesh have international quality. During the tour the captaincy seemed to enhance his play.