Alastair Cook's rough start to the Ashes series has some questioning his motivation but England captain Joe Root insists the veteran's form isn't keeping him awake at night.
With off-field troubles piling up for the visitors, Cook's lack of runs at the top of the order could be their biggest on-field concern after going 1-0 down in the five-Test series.
England's highest Test run-scorer made scores of two and seven during the first Test in Brisbane and has reached fifty once in six innings since arriving in Australia.
With more than 11,000 Test runs to his name, there is no doubting the former captain's accomplishments.
Whether the 32-year-old is capable of continuing to scale such heights is a question that has been raised by Test greats including Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen.
"The way he walks off the field, the way he walks to training, I don't see a bounce in his step," former teammate Pietersen told BT Sports.
"He's played almost 150 Test matches and it's quite difficult to get up every single day for Test cricket."
Root, unsurprisingly, has a more optimistic view as England prepare for the pink-ball second Test in Adelaide starting on Saturday.
The England skipper says Cook is a proven performer on Australian soil, having scored a remarkable 766 runs at 127.66 in 2010-11.
"He's a world-class act," Root said.
"He's been one of our most consistent performers for over 10 years.
"His experience and success he's had here ... it's not the ideal start to the series but when you have all that behind you, all that ability, it's something I'm not going to lose sleep over."
Cook's twin failures in Brisbane were somewhat mitigated by encouraging half-centuries from unheralded top-order trio Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan.
But the visitors will be praying Cook can find form for what's tipped to be their best chance at victory in Adelaide.
"Throughout this series I'm pretty sure he's going to make massive contributions," Root said.
"He's going to perform really well for us."
Share
