England cricket team series. However, this status only lasted a year – having lost 3–0 to Pakistan over the winter, England were beaten 2–0 by South Africa, who replaced them at the top of the rankings. It was their first home series loss since 2008, against the same opposition. This loss saw the resignation of Strauss as captain (and his retirement from cricket). His replacement, Alastair Cook, who was already in charge of the ODI side, led England to a 2–1 victory in India – their first in the country since 1984–85. In doing so, Cook became the first ever captain to score
English cricket team in Australia in 1974–75 when Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson were unfit to play, made 188 - the highest Test score by an England captain in Australia - and won by an innings. He beat New Zealand with a batting average of 240.00 and retained the captaincy for the 1975 Cricket World Cup, where England lost to Australia in the semi-finals. He lost the First Test of the 1975 Ashes series by an innings and was replaced by the combative Tony Greig, never to play Test cricket again. It came as a severe shock to the nervous system of the England batsmen when Australia