Alastair Cook shrugged off calls from Kevin Pietersen to resign as England captain ahead of the third Test against India at Southampton.
Pietersen used his Daily Telegraph column published Saturday to say he was only still in the job because it would be “yet another PR disaster” for the England and Wales Cricket Board to sack him now.
Meanwhile Cook’s form with the bat has also declined.
It is now 27 innings since he scored the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds, and the left-handed opener’s last nine Test innings have yielded just 129 runs.
But Cook speaking at Southampton, where England will start Sunday’s match 1-0 down in the five-Test series, following India’s 95-run win at Lord’s on Monday, insisted once again he would not resign.
“The last three or four weeks, everyone’s been saying that. It is no different who else says it,” Cook told reporters at Southampton on Saturday when asked about Pietersen’s comments.
“I’ve just got to stay true to myself and say how good it would be if I could get through this as a person, as a player, as a leader and take huge strides from it,” the 29-year-old added.
