Alastair Cook too stubborn to quit captaincy - Geoffrey Boycott

Alastair Cook is too "stubborn" to quit the England captaincy, says former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott.

England slipped to a 95-run defeat by India at Lord's on Monday to go 1-0 down in the Test series.

Cook has been much-criticised following a seventh loss in nine Tests, but the 29-year-old remains defiant, insisting he will not walk out on the captaincy.

"He's obviously not going to move unless you get six wild stallions to pull him out," said Boycott.

"It's that stubbornness about him. He's only interested in what he sees."

Cook, England's record Test century-maker, has failed to make a hundred in 27 innings.

Asked if he thought the Essex opener was still the right man to lead England, Boycott told BBC Radio 5 live: "There's only him, his wife, his family and his friends think so. I don't think too many other people do."

Cook became England captain following Andrew Strauss's retirement in 2012, scoring three centuries in a series win in India and leading England to a 3-0 Ashes success last summer.

Since then, he has overseen a 5-0 whitewash by Australia down under and a 1-0 home defeat by Sri Lanka.

Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart have called on the England and Wales Cricket Board to take the captaincy off Cook.

Michael Atherton, who led England a record 54 times in Tests, wrote in the Times: "It gives no pleasure to write it, but the tap on the shoulder for Alastair Cook should come."

Another former captain, Sir Ian Botham, said it would be best if Cook stepped down.

"The burden of captaincy is definitely weighing Alastair Cook down. In my opinion he needs a break from the job and the game," Botham wrote in the Daily Mirror.

"It is all well and good the captain standing there and saying, 'I'm trying very hard and giving it everything' but when the brain is scrambled, it's scrambled."

Listen to Geoffrey Boycott and Jonathan Agnew review the second Test on the Test Match Special podcast.