Cook plays down talk about quitting England captaincy

England opener Alastair Cook has hinted that the upcoming five-match Test series against India could be his last one as captain.

Duckett moves down to four in the order, while Gary Ballance is dropped from the side after scoring just 24 runs in four innings against Bangladesh.

For company, he has a 39-year-old Gareth Batty who’s returning to worldwide cricket after 11 long years and played just the one match in Bangladesh.

Cook, who stopped short of naming his full side as he and head coach Trevor Bayliss ponder conditions and the make-up of their bowling attack, said: “I can’t give my team as we haven’t trained yet and seen the wicket but I can tell you Has will open the batting and Ben will bat at No4”.

England: Alastair Cook (c), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Gareth Batty, Steven Finn, Zafar Ansari, Haseeb Hameed, Jos Buttler (wk), Jake Ball.

The India captain, irrespective of the bowlers he has faced or the playing surface, has scored runs easily, and cricket fans will expect the story to continue against England as well.

But it’s an understandable query, as – unless you’re a keen follower of the county cricket circuit – it’s likely that the rise of the 19-year-old Lancastrian would have completely passed you by.

India, led by their firebrand captain, Virat Kohli, are top of the world rankings and have won 12 and drawn one of their past 13 Tests at home – including a 3-0 whitewash of New Zealand last month – since Cook’s tourists claimed a historic 2-1 victory here in 2012.

“He is one of those natural run-scorers. We have experienced those sorts of tactics in the past”, said Kohli, who has hit two double tons this year. “That was a great learning experience for all of us as a young unit, when we played in England”.

“I think it’s going to be an exciting series, I feel like it’s an exciting side to be part of”. His series average for that tour is the worst in his career, lower even than his debut series against the West Indies or his singular outing against Bangladesh.

“It’s a huge challenge to these guys who have not played a huge amount of cricket in the subcontinent as a group”.

“Historically he’s been a middle-order batsman so will be comfortable there, but it’s never ideal to chop and change”.

Cook suggested, however, in an interview with The Cricketer magazine that his appetite for the job may be diminishing, saying: “Deep down I don’t know how much longer I am going to carry on”.

“I probably shouldn’t have played that series – I wasn’t fit”.

Besides Rajkot making its test debut, Hardik Pandya or Karan Nair could also play their first game in test cricket.