WATCH: Alastair Cook reveals the only thing he regrets about his career

Cook accepted that the mental edge, which kept him alive in difficult situations, has gone now.

Alastair Cook’s historic cricketing journey is going to end with the conclusion of India’s tour of England. On Friday, the former English skipper will step out at the Kia Oval in London to play the 161^st match of his Test career. Before he could add up a few more numbers to the figure of 12,254 (his runs in Test cricket), the English legend opened up in front of the media personnel and revealed the biggest regret of his career.

During his tenure as a skipper, the most unfortunate incident (which Cook believes to be) happened was the axing of Kevin Pietersen. It was one of Cook’s life’s difficult phases where he acted as one of the decision makers to sack KP from the Team. He said the situation could have been better handled.

“Clearly the KP affair was a tough year, there's no doubt about that. The fall-out of that wasn't great for English cricket and wasn't great for me. I was involved in that decision without being the bloke who actually made the final decision. The fall-out of that decision and the effect it had for 12 months was immense. It could have been handled differently,” he said.

"I have a regret over it, it wasn't great for English cricket, that was the lowest I was."

Alastair Cook admits he regrets the handling of Kevin Pietersen's dismissal from the England cricket team in 2014.

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— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) September 6, 2018

 

Cook accepted that the mental edge, which kept him alive in difficult situations, has gone now.

“I've always had that mental edge; I have always been mentally incredibly tough and had that edge to everything I have done but that edge had kind of gone. The thing I had found easy before was not quite there and to me, that was the biggest thing,” Cook said.

After having played 158 Test matches on the trot for a country, it’s obvious for any player to turn emotional after realising that he is going to play the last game of his international career. Cook had the same feelings after England romped India in Southampton by 60 runs to capture the series 3-1.

“There might be a bit of fuss about it and if it were 2-2 I’d have kept my mouth shut,” said Cook.

“At Southampton, I had a couple of beers in which I needed to be otherwise I would have cried more than I actually did. I managed to hold it together. At the end of the game, I just said — this might be good news for some and sad for others but it's time. I've done my bit and if picked the next game will be my last one — that’s kind of all I said. There was a bit of silence, Moeen Ali said something, we all laughed and everyone got on with it. We had a nice evening in the changing room,” he added.

After making his debut in 2006, Cook had a remarkable cricketing career. He will retire as the highest run-getter for England in the longest format of the game. Cook represented England in 160 Test matches where he scored 12,254 runs at an average of 44.88. He has 32 tons and 56 half-centuries to his credit.