The former English skipper Alastair Cook is expected to miss the fourth Test of the 5-match series against India at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton next week to attend the birth of his third child. His wife Alice is expected to deliver a child sometime around the start of the match, on August 30. However, the reports of Sportsmail suggest that the English team hoping the timing of the birth will allow Cook to take his place in what is shaping up to be a crucial game.

Earlier during the Bangladesh tour in 2016, Alastair Cook joined the squad late so he could be at the birth of his second daughter, Isobel. The couple’s first, Elsie, was born in 2014. If he misses the game at Southampton, it will bring to an end his world-record sequence of 157 Test appearances.

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In 2018 so far, Cook’s batting average is below 20 in Test cricket, which is lowest annual average since his debut in 2006. Since making an unbeaten 244 at Melbourne over the winter, he has scored just one only half-century in 13 innings. However, he is no willing to give up his place at the top of the order to a new arrival, with Surrey’s Rory Burns the likeliest replacement.

Cook’s absence will deteriorate the unstable-looking English batting-order further, with Keaton Jennings still trying to re-establish himself as a Test opener, and Ollie Pope only two caps into his career. The situation can become further more complex for England if their in-form wicketkeeper-batsman, Jonny Bairstow, who sustained a ‘small fracture in the middle finger of his left hand doesn’t get fit before the Southampton Test. 

Bairstow is expected to bat in England’s second innings in Nottingham Test, but his participation in the last two Test is now in doubt.