XtraTime Web Desk: Former England captain Alastair Cook who will be playing his last test for England from tomorrow against India reveals that he cried when he told his teammates about his retirement from international cricket, a decision that he had been considering for almost last six months.
Cook, who averages 18.62 in 2018, said he had lost his “mental edge”.
“I was a couple of beers in, otherwise I would have cried more than I actually did,” said Cook, who told the team after the fourth-Test win on Sunday.
“At the end of the game I said, ‘It might be good news, it might be sad for some, it might be happy for others, but it’s time and I have done my bit. I will play one more game’.
“There was a little bit of silence, then Mo [Ali] said something, everybody laughed and it was forgotten about.”
Cook also said his decision to retire from international cricket came after seeing signs he was losing his edge as an opener.
The 33-year-old is England’s all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket and captained the side more times than any other player.
“Over the last six months there have been signs in my mind that this was going to happen,” Cook said.
“I told Rooty [captain Joe Root] before the game [at the Ageas Bowl] and told Trevor (Bayliss) during the game.
“I have always been mentally incredibly tough and [have had] an edge to everything I have done. Everything I have found easy before wasn’t quite there and to me that was the biggest sign.”
Lastly as per Cook the lowest moment of his career was over how his former teammate Kevin Pietersen’s exile from national side was taken care off in the month of February four years back.
“The KP affair was a tough year, the fallout for that wasn’t great for English cricket or for me,” he added.
“The whole fallout of it, the end of the Sri Lanka series – the Test at Lord’s, was the lowest I was.”