The last Test Match was brilliant nice and close and fast paced.

Watching a lot of T20 games on Sky, These days I prefer fast paced more action,

Cook is brilliant at batting, but as a Captain, we need youthful, not a Strauss Clone

Actually, you are right. I had it in my head that this was day four.

i do that all the time with tests that start on a friday after years of being used to thursday starts only

I'm old enough the remember the days of Sunday being a rest day in Tests. Just shows how much cricket has changed over the years.

Vince with his pads on so may be coming in at 3 and Wahab is sitting in the dressing room with an ice pack on his arm from the blow he took

From all the talk of positive attacking cricket, this isn't it

If we'd spent 2 days bowling, there may be a case for it

(plus the fact that 2 of these didn't bowl in the 1st Test)

and here comes the rain.......!

Would it make a difference to the skipper's thinking if we were in a Test Championship, 4 points for a win but a bonus point added if you won by an innings??

With how the Series runs these days, Surely we should be thinking positive and getting up to 8 points as Quickly as we can.

Lost of reasons for England to bat, Michael Vaughan much more attacking tactically since retiring.

It's amazing how Alistair Cook got the job of England captain with so many great candidates on here

Athers and Bumble explaining it perfectly. Two of the front line bowlers just back from injury, 2 and a bit days left, very little rain forecast so what is the problem ? A win in 5 days is the same as a win in 4 days. They have 10 days before the next test so plenty of time to rest in between too.

For those of a certain age, tune into TMS now

Aggers interviewing Peter Lever

They are all fair points except for the weather forecasting

Never been a strength in this country...

I will trust the England skipper on this one.

The whining at this decision is so boring and predictable, much more boring than the actual decision.

I'd have probably bowled, but it's not the huge deal people are inevitably making it. To question Cook's position of captain on it is pretty much farcical. Eoin Morgan, doesn't deserve to be in the Test team, so that'll work.

Yep, some extraordinary comments

I have said over the years on here, I haven't thought much of Cook as Captaincy, he has always been a Strauss Clonre

Argh! Rain has stopped play in West Indies v India as well!

402 runs ahead, when's the declaration? Assuming they get back on sharpish and play all the time left, should be 500 on tonight with 6 sessions left. Bat till lunch, setting 600 to win off five sessions? Declare earlier, 550 off 5.5 sessions seems better.
Now, what are Pakistan Win odds?

Then you know very little of test cricket, mind you, you have admitted above that you prefer T20 so that proves it.

Cook has a good record, in fact only Strauss and Vaughan have won more tests as captain, so he knows more than you obviously credit him for.

Who's next-in-line, say in 2 - 3 years? Probably Root - but could he take over now for a couple of Tests if Cook were injured?

*Edit* How many of the current squad have captained their own county (for more than one game)?

What the hell is wrong with being a Strauss clone, seem to remember he won a few Ashes.

Your idea of putting Morgan in seems to have no validity, I don't hugely rate his captaincy, and he just doesn't score first-class runs, mainly because he hasn't played in one for over a year.

The fact that he uses 'Strauss clone' as an insult, given England's record under Strauss, says it all.

Vince has captained his county, but yeah, not sure who is next inline, probably will be Root. If Cook was out though I wouldn't be surprised if Broad did it, was t20 captain for awhile.

Strauss also decided not to enforce the follow on a lot of time, would rack up a lead of nearly. 500 runs, when 400 would probably do.

If I was captain, unless the sun was out, and it was hot, I would always put them back in, and get whatever I needed in the last innings.

If there was an injury between Tests to Cook, could an option be to bring back Bell as an one-test skip?

i seem to remember a series in the WI where strauss's negative decision making as a captain when it came to declarations cost us the series

i dont think cook is a terrible captain but he certainly isn't a good captain, he is quite negative and has a poor record of handling spin bowlers. whilst i wont go as far as the other posters i think he has all the poor qualities strauss had as a captain and not as many of the good ones

he has improved over the last couple of years but things like the way he handled getting dropped for the last world cup imo showed his flaws. defending him purely on his record of matches won when we play more test cricket now and he has been captain for as many games as he has is a misleading use of stats. he has been captain of one of our better test teams relative to the strength world wide and the record reflects that as much as his captaincy.