Why Alastair Cook refused to walk away from England captaincy...

England captain Alastair Cook has reportedly questioned his position as skipper in the past few weeks before he decided that he could not live with walking away from the job.

Cook went into the third Test against India at Southampton under pressure to stand down from his captaincy, short of runs and leading a team without a Test win in a year. But he enjoyed knocks of 95 and 70 to help his side to a solid 266-run win in the third Test.

Cook said that he still feels as if he has a lot to give, and added that it is a great job to have the England captaincy, The BBC reported.

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The skipper said that he could not live with the decision to throw the captaincy away just as it gets really tough.

A number of pundits had called for Cook to step aside after England's 10-match winless sequence in Tests. The criticism was reportedly centered on Cook's own struggles with the bat and he still remains without a Test century in 29 innings.

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Cook said that he had questioned his own position as it was only natural and added that it is always hard as a captain, one is saying stuff and not backing up himself. He said that hopefully the guys respect him enough in the dressing room.

The fourth Test will start at Old Trafford on Thursday, with the series currently level on 1-1 as the first match ended in a draw followed by India winning the second and England winning the third Test of the five-match series, the report added.

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Earlier, Cook was running out of time, excuses and places to hide after Mahendra Singh Dhoni's India became the latest side to expose his weaknesses with a thumping victory at Lord's to open a 1-0 lead in their five-match series.

His bright start to life as England captain at the end of 2012 now appears like a dim and distant memory as Dhoni carried on a trend started by Australia's Michael Clarke before handing the baton on to Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews.

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Cook's malaise began with the 5-0 Ashes rout in Australia, continued when a modest Sri Lanka eked out a 1-0 series win in England earlier this summer and was amplified by being forced to eat humble pie by an average Indian attack in his own backyard.