Mentor Gooch calls out Cook's form

Former England captain Graham Gooch believes the batting of Alastair Cook is "flatlining".

Cook, who heads into day three of the fourth Test against India unbeaten on two, has endured a difficult home summer, having scored 214 runs at 23.78 with one fifty. That average drops to 19.20 through all of 2018 and is indicative of a tailing away in returns in recent years, with his average of 38.39 since the beginning of 2016 almost seven runs down on his career record of 45.01, and boosted significantly by scores of 243 and 244no against West Indies and Australia respectively.

Gooch has been a long-time mentor of Cook's, and believes the left-hander is currently failing to progress his batting.

"My concern watching him is that I don't see any improvements in his game," he told BBC Radio. "I think he's flatlining a little bit … when you're a cricketer, a batsman, you always need to improve yourself – you need to look for new things to do to drive you forward."

Cook will turn 34 in December and is in the middle of his 160th Test – another nine matches would put him behind only Sachin Tendulkar (200 Tests) on the overall list.

That would mean playing the final Test against India, three Tests in Sri Lanka in November, three Tests in the Caribbean early next year, and then a home Ashes series following the World Cup in England.

"I don't know how he's practising, I don't know what he's doing away from the game," Gooch said. "I am concerned when I see him play, because I think he makes similar mistakes, and even at 33, 34, you can improve yourself."

Gooch finished his Test career with 8,900 runs, of which 5,154 came after his 34th birthday; he is one of only two players (Tendulkar being the other) to have score more than 5,000 runs from the age of 34 onwards.

Cook relinquished the captaincy to Joe Root following England's 4-0 Test series defeat to India in late 2016, and in July he said the freedom from that responsibility was allowing him to enjoy his cricket.

"I think the hierarchy would have liked me to carry on until Australia (last summer) but I believed it was the right time for me to go," he said. "I wasn't in the right mental state to carry on and it wasn't fair on the team for me to do so.

"You do evolve as a player. I'm now the senior batter and I don't have to worry about team meetings, what's being said or looking at the opposition.

"There's still pressure but I'm enjoying this second part of my career."