Former England cricketers call for Alastair Cook's sacking after series defeat

England's current Test skipper Alastair Cook's time seems to be up after a demoralizing 4-0 series defeat to India, with many of England's former cricketers demanding the opening batsman to step down from captaincy.

Nasser Hussain has addressed this issue after a defeat in the fourth Test at Mumbai by saying, “If Cook has the energy, carry on with the job. But if not, go now and give (Joe) Root a chance.”

Recently, Michael Vaughan also jumped in with his opinions by saying, “When you are captain, and the team is losing, you do not enjoy the game. It drags you down. You wake up in the morning not really wanting to go out and play. Cook somehow has to rediscover that zest and energy to play the game. The team needs his power and runs at the top of the order more than his leadership,” reported The Telegraph.

“He has to sit down and ask himself is he the man to energize this England side for seven Test matches in the summer and win the Ashes down under or has he taken it as far as he can?” Vaughan added to his assessment of Cook's captaincy in the series.

While it looked like England would play out a draw in the fifth and final Test at Chennai, their batting saw a shocking collapse in the final session of the fifth day to hand India a victory by an innings and 75 runs. After witnessing this capitulation, former England batsman Kevin Pietersen came up with his own criticism of Alastair Cook's captaincy.

First, he expressed his disbelief at England's performance:

He pointed to the field placements Cook had in place for the Indian batsmen as India broke the record of highest Test total to score 759/7 dec in Chennai.

Former batsman Geoffrey Boycott also voiced his opinion on this issue, saying Cook has to make a decision before the Ashes in July, 2017.

“If we are to have a new captain, he needs all seven Tests to get his feet under the table," Boycott wrote in Daily Telegraph. 

"We don't want Alastair giving it up after three or four Tests. This hasn't just happened. It must have been on his mind for some time. Normally, they sack losing generals, and he made a comment before the tour about how it might be his last," he added.

"After we've lost the series, he says Joe Root is ready for captaincy, and nobody forced that out of him. Whoever captains in England this summer has seven Tests (against South Africa and West Indies) before the biggest series of all in the Ashes," Boycott said in his column.

The former Yorkshire batsman also cited the example of previous captains to explain the situation.

"There's many a player who got the captaincy when he was young - Ted Dexter, Peter May. Some people thrive on it. Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain weren't county captains, and they did well. People either rise to the challenge or they don't," the 76-year old said.