Gooch backs Cook to help rebuild England team

Under-fire skipper Alastair Cook should remain and become part of England's team rebuilding in the wake of their Ashes series humiliation, former captain Graham Gooch said today.
The tourists are staring at another heavy defeat and a 5-0 series whitewash in the final Sydney Test after a first innings capitulation and trailing Australia by 311 runs with six wickets intact at the end of day two.
England's plight was underscored by Cook's inexplicable decision not to play a shot and a trapped leg before wicket by Ryan Harris on the second ball of the day as a prelude to the tourists' collapse to be all out for 155.

All positions in England's demoralised team and back-room staff are expected to come under review at the end of the series, but Gooch, the team's batting coach, backed Cook to be part of the solution to the English team's malaise.
"He (Cook) is not contributing the weight of runs that we have come to expect from him. He's not been at his best and he's been under pressure from the Australian bowlers but he's still delivered a little bit," Gooch told reporters.
"Ultimately, the individual is the only one who can make that decision, but for me he's still a guy who is learning and who should be there when some kind of rebuilding takes place."

Gooch said it was not the weight of responsibility of captaincy that contributed to Cook's abject dismissal on Saturday.
"He made an error in judgement which happens to any batsmen. It's particularly poignant when it happens like that at the beginning of the day when you're trying to set the tone and you're trying to lead from the front," he said.