Yorkshire batsman Joe Root is the strong favourite to take over with an announcement expected in the next fortnight, as England build towards the Ashes in Australia at the end of the year.

Cook, England’s leading scorer in Tests with 11,057 runs, became captain in August 2012 and led his country to Ashes glory on home soil in 2013 and 2015 as well as series wins in India and South Africa.

“It’s been a huge honour to be England captain and to lead the Test team over the past five years,” Cook, 32, who intends to carry on playing Test cricket, said in a statement.

“Stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision, but I know this is the correct decision for me and at the right time for the team.”

Cook’s decision to stand down follows England’s 4-0 series defeat in India at the end of last year, which put pressure on him to quit.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said a “proper process” had started to appoint a successor, with the team not in Test action again until July.

Cook, who also led England in a record 69 one-day internationals between 2010 and 2014, is the country’s most capped Test skipper and has scored more Test centuries than any previous captain.

He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2012 and ICC (International Cricket Council) World Test Captain in 2013.

He tendered his resignation to England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves on Sunday.

“It’s a sad day personally in many ways, but I want to thank everyone I’ve captained, all the coaches and support staff and, of course, the England supporters and the Barmy Army who follow us home and away and have given us unwavering support,” Cook added.

“Playing for England really is a privilege and I hope to carry on as a Test player, making a full contribution and helping the next England captain and the team however I can.”

England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss said Cook had made a “fantastic contribution” and “deserves to be seen as one of our country’s great captains”.

“We now move on with the process of appointing the right successor,” Strauss said.

“There are a number of established players who are playing formal or informal leadership roles and whilst we’ve rightly not spoken to anyone in relation to the Test captaincy so far, we can now talk fully and openly within the team.

“We expect to be able to make an announcement before the team head to the West Indies on 22nd February.”

A classically elegant left-handed opening batsman, the square-jawed Cook took charge of the England Test team following Strauss’s retirement from the game in August 2012.

In his first tour as captain he led England to a first series win in India in 28 years, hitting centuries in the first three Tests.

His first Ashes series in 2013 ended in triumph and after a harrowing 5-0 whitewash in Australia in 2013-14, England regained the urn in 2015.

Cook oversaw a historic series win in South Africa in 2015-16 and last year England came within one win against Pakistan of topping the ICC Test rankings.

He went 35 Test innings without a century between May 2013 and March 2015, but the milestones have continued to stack up. He was the first England batsman to reach 10,000 and then 11,000 Test runs and sits 10th in the all-time list, 4,864 runs behind the record held by the great Sachin Tendulkar.

Cook’s mentor Graham Gooch, the former England captain, told BBC Radio 5 Live he had tried to convince the Essex man to stay in the role.

“This type of sportsman only comes once in a generation, maybe less,” Gooch said. “He’s a great man and he’s still got great things to do for his country.

After Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 171 to lead his country to an imposing 309-3, Australia got away to a rocky start when left arm seamer Barinder Sran removed both openers in his first three overs.

Playing on a lifeless pitch which offered nothing for the bowlers, Bailey and Smith played brilliantly to frustrate the Indian attack.

They rotated the strike throughout the innings to keep the score moving, taking quick singles and hitting boundaries when they needed to increase the pace.

Bailey was the more aggressive early and reached his century before his captain, taking just 106 balls with six boundaries and two sixes.

Smith began to accelerate and followed Bailey to three figures soon after, off only 97 balls including six fours and a towering six.

Bailey eventually fell when he tried to smash another six off Ravi Ashwin and was caught on the boundary by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Smith continued his incredible vein of form.

He smashed his way to 149 but with only two runs needed for victory he chipped Sran to cover where Virat Kohli claimed an easy catch, leaving James Faulkner to hit the winning run.

“I thought we did well in the field to restrict them to 309,” Smith said.

“They looked like they were going to get 350 at one stage.”

India must have been confident of defending their total after Sran’s impressive start.

He brilliantly caught and bowled Finch (8) in his second over, then had the dangerous Warner (5) caught at midwicket by Kohli in his third.

But the ease with which Australia chased the score down showed that India had not scored quickly enough in the middle of their innings and were at least 20 runs short of a competitive total.

“I think it’s important that after you score 300 runs you bowl well and I think in the middle overs when the spinners were bowling they gave up too many runs,” Dhoni said.

“I was quite happy with the fast bowling performance — I thought they bowled well and hit the right spots.”

Earlier Sharma and Kohli (91) shared a 207-run partnership for the second wicket against a toothless Australian attack.

India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan (9) in the sixth over when he top-edged an attempted pull from Josh Hazlewood straight to Mitchell Marsh at deep backward square leg.

However, that brought Kohli to the crease and signalled a long period of complete dominance over the Australian attack as he raced to the highest individual ODI score against Australia on Australian soil, eclipsing Viv Richards’ 153 not out for the West Indies in 1979.

Sharma smashed 13 fours and cleared the boundary seven times to the delight of the large contingent of Indian fans at the ground. He built his innings steadily, bringing up his 50 from 63 balls, his century from 122 and his 150 from 155, mixing quick singles with some powerful boundary hitting.

It was the fourth time Sharma had scored 150 in ODIs, a record only surpassed by countryman Sachin Tendulkar.

Sharma lost Kohli with the score on 243 and was joined at the crease by Dhoni, who joined in with 18 rapid runs before he was caught brilliantly at mid-on by Boland.

However, despite the late flourish the Indians fell short and Australia were able to draw first blood in the five-match series.

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In reply to Australia’s formidable 559 for nine declared on a placid wicket, the Kiwis were 510 for six at stumps, trailing by just 49 runs.

Ross Taylor had emerged from a form slump and scored his second Test double century to be a career-best 235 not out, with Mark Craig on seven.

Williamson became one of the four youngest players to reach 12 Test centuries when he made 166, while Starc bowled what is believed to be the fastest recorded delivery in Test cricket.

Williamson rarely looked troubled in posting his second century in as many matches, before mistiming a pull shot off Josh Hazlewood and was caught at mid-on by Mitchell Johnson to end a record 265-run stand with Taylor, a new benchmark for New Zealand in Tests against Australia.

He faced 250 balls in 390 minutes and hit 24 boundaries.

The 25-year-old made 140 and 59 in the first Test at the Gabba, which New Zealand lost by 208 runs, and continued that form in Perth.

It was his 12th Test century and only three other players have scored as many centuries at the same age — the others being Sachin Tendulkar (16), Don Bradman (13) and Alastair Cook (12).

Williamson has made centuries in five of his last seven Tests against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England and Australia, and in that time he has scored 1,118 runs at 111.80.

Taylor was a little less sure at the crease and flirted with disaster on a couple of occasions, but recovered to post his 13th Test hundred and looked increasingly comfortable during his innings. It was a welcome performance for the classy Taylor, who has been struggling with form for some time and had not scored a Test century since November last year.

In a game where records have been tumbling with incredible regularity, Taylor posted a new benchmark for visiting players at the WACA and also became the first New Zealander to score a Test double century against Australia.

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Tendulkar’s decision to put the opposition in to bat backfired as game’s heavyweights Kumar Sangakkara (70 off 30), Jacques Kallis (45 off 23) and Ricky Ponting (41 off 16) tore apart the equally celebrated Warriors’ bowling attack to smash 262 for five in 20 overs.

The likes of Tendulkar (33 off 20), Virender Sehwag (16 off 8), Shaun Pollock (55 off 22) Brian Lara (19 off 21) and Sourav Ganguly (12 off 12) enthralled a sizable crowd with their brief knocks at Minute Maid Park.

The ‘legends’ now travel to Los Angeles for the final game of the series on Saturday. The opening match, won by Warne’s men convincingly, was played in New York on November 7.

Though the match’s outcome was not that significant considering the games are a mere exhibition, the famed former cricketers from both teams displayed fierce competitive spirit.

The competitive zeal was evident when the dream opening pair of Tendulkar and Sehwag walked into the middle. What made the contest more mouthwatering was Wasim Akram opening the bowling for Warriors and swinging the ball in from the word go.

It was now Tendulkar’s turn to use the long handle. The master blaster hammered three fours and couple of sixes before his old foe Saqlain Mushtaq found his stumps with a fast off spinner.

Ganguly, playing his first game of the series, was expectedly rusty to start with but managed a four and a big hit in his run a ball innings.

Warne too appreciated the crowd response.

“The way we have been treated has been fantastic.

Sangakkara, who was the Man of the Match for his blazing knock, said: “It was a lot of fun, thank you Houston for the hospitality. Lot of credit to Sachin and Warney, they are pioneers on the field and they are breaking new round off the field. All outstanding players, legends of the game, the crowd participation has been unbelievable. Players have given their all on the field. “Participation of kids is vital for the growth of the game but for us, it has been humbling. Hopefully the game catches on in the US,” Sangakkara said. PTI

Warne’s Warriors: 262 for 5 (MP Vaughan 30, ML Hayden 32, JH Kallis 45, KC Sangakkara 70, RT Ponting 41, A Symonds 19 n.o., JN Rhodes 18 n.o., L Klusener 2 for 45)

Sachin’s Blasters: 205 for 8 (SR Tendulkar 33, L Klusener 21, SM Pollock 55, GP Swann 22 n.o., A Symonds 4 for 70)

More than two years after last appearing for his country, Sehwag accepted that there would be no emotional comeback as he became the latest member of India’s World Cup-winning team to call it a day.

“God has been kind and I have done what I wanted to do,” he said in a statement on his 37th birthday after again being overlooked by the selectors for the ongoing series against South Africa.

“Cricket has been my life and continues to be so. Playing for India was a memorable journey and I tried to make it more memorable for my team mates and the Indian cricket fans.” The right-handed batsman also confirmed he was retiring from the Indian Premier League, an annual Twenty20 tournament that takes place in April and May.

Reports however said Sehwag would continue to play first-class cricket for his state side Haryana in the domestic Ranji Tropy competition.

After making his debut against South Africa in 2001, Sehwag became one of the most feared batsmen in world cricket, forming part of a formidable line-up that also included Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.

Sehwag is widely credited with transforming the role of opening batsman in Test cricket with a hard-hitting style that brought him a top score in Test matches of 319, against South Africa in Chennai in 2008.

People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones  – Sachin Tendulkar