Cook 'a unique person and leader'

Barring injury, Alastair Cook will be the man walking out to toss the coin for England on the opening day of the World Cup, against Australia at the MCG. It should be one of the high points of his career but quite what state he and his team are in come February 14 is still very much up for debate.

If England were going to rip up their script this was their last chance. There were plenty of arguments in favour of doing so but it was always going to be an unlikely prospect. James Whitaker, the national selector, repeated that Cook had "100% support" from all the selectors and while that may have been the end result of the recent meetings there is more than just a slight suggestion that some uncertainties were voiced before the collective conclusion was reached.

Cook has not led England to victory in a bilateral one-day series since winning in New Zealand early in 2013. The Champions Trophy final followed, but series losses against New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and India have seen England slip to fifth in the rankings. The one series they have won, with a team based around T20 cricket and led by Stuart Broad, was against West Indies in March.

Cook has been pushed to his limits over the last 12 months, presiding over an Ashes whitewash, the sacking of Kevin Pietersen and a poor start to the home season with Test and ODI defeats against Sri Lanka before emerging into the daylight by coming from behind to overturn India in the longer format.

However, the feel-good factor was quickly extinguished by the manner of the three ODI defeats to India - which became increasingly embarrassing - and raised serious serious questions about England less than six months out from the World Cup.

The announcement of the squads does not answer many of those questions: how will England balance the side? What is Ravi Bopara's role? Do they play a frontline spinner in Australia and New Zealand? But the identity of the captain has been rubberstamped and with it came a glowing appraisal from national selector James Whitaker.

"Leadership is unique and it takes time to develop. We believe Alastair still has the skills, the drive and enthusiasm, which are all great qualities, to instil the right direction and control of the players," Whitaker said. "He's fully respected within the group and, more than anything, we believe he is a very constant person.

"The highs and lows he's have over the last 12 months: it takes a unique sense of will to come through that. To keep getting up when you're knocked constantly and to show a degree of humbleness when you're doing well is unique in any leadership. We believe we have a unique leader and a unique person and that should not be underestimated."

"Alastair is learning still, of course, and doesn't always get it right. But he gets it right a lot. He has some good senior players who can help him and advise him. But we still believe he will it right the majority of the time."

Cook's decision-making on the field is just one part of his job, though. The selectors have put their stock in him to be the rock at the top of the order which the rest of the batsmen build around to give totals of 300 plus that will be needed during the World Cup. In the past Cook has shown that ability - particularly when he peaked as an ODI batsman with three centuries in six innings in 2012 - but it is now 40 innings since he has reached 80.

"There are two or three senior players who know that, while getting 30 or 40 is just average, they need to get scores beyond 80," Whitaker said. "We still feel we have those senior players in that team who can achieve that. We're very confident they can."

"We need a base and Alastair, batting at No.1, can create that base. If he can concentrate working hard on his game - which we believe he is capable of doing - he can form the partnership at the top of the order that give us a good chance of winning games of one-day cricket."

England will hope that conditions in Australia and New Zealand will allow Alex Hales to provide the innings with early momentum, but with Cook and Ian Bell both retained there will not be revolution at the top of the order with a continued belief that Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and, depending on the balance of the side, the recalled Ravi Bopara or James Taylor can provide the late kick.

"We have flexible batsmen and you do need different styles of batting," Whitaker said. "It would be wrong to throw six or seven bashers out there. We have to have a subtle blend that gets us to 280-300 and beyond. And also to chase down scores like that. There needs to be an improvement from every position in the batting order."

The selectors did not feel Jason Roy, the Surrey batsman, was ready for ODIs although he will be one of the players spending time in Sri Lanka as part of the performance squad.

"We have talked about him and he played for the Lions in the tri-series in the middle of the summer. He got one fifty. We believe he could be the future of one-day cricket but just at the moment we believe we have a good balance of freshness and experience in our batting group. But he is in the performance programme squad as is James Vince. So he is very much in our thoughts for the future."