Alastair Cook goes into his third Ashes series as England captain accepting his own style of leadership must adapt to the free-spirited group of players he now has at his disposal if Australia are to be overturned this northern summer.
Speaking before the first Test in Cardiff, Cook stressed the importance of moving on from the 5-0 whitewash in Australia 18 months ago, claiming that result – and the mental scars of facing Mitchell Johnson – would have no bearing on his side’s chances of regaining the urn.
Instead, while playing down the chances of Adil Rashid making his Test debut as a second spinner, the 30-year-old chose to focus on the attacking, aggressive intent England have shown this summer while conceding his own approach will be significantly different from when he first took over from his predecessor, Andrew Strauss, in 2012 and inherited a “methodical” side.
“There has been a lot written about my captaincy,” said Cook, whose 10 Ashes Tests as captain to date see him 5-3 down. “At certain times I have to be able to get on that front foot. As a leader of a group you do have to change your style of leadership to the style of players you have in the changing room to what gets the best out of them.
“If you looked a bit further back to a different set of players when I started, it was a methodical team, with bowlers really banging out areas time and time again and batters who were relentlessly grinding down the opposition. That’s what we got success from.
“But the guys coming in now are a little bit more free-spirited. They will have a higher economy rate but the chances of bowling jaffas are higher up there. It’s the same with the batting. That’s the way the new guys coming in have played and it’s about making them feel comfortable.”
Cook, who described Australia as the best team in the world despite their second-place ranking behind South Africa, named Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler as the players to take England forward over the next decade. And while the first two of that trio were involved in his side’s horror series in 2013-14, the captain sees little relevance in that result.
“We cannot keep harping on about that. If you went back five more months before that, we won the Ashes 3-0 in our own conditions,” said Cook.
“It is a brand-new challenge and a fresh start. Both teams have new faces. Cricket is not played on paper, or what happened two years ago, it’s about what happens tomorrow and the next 25 days from there.”
Cook had just emerged from his meeting with his opposite number Michael Clarke and the ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle – the Sri Lankan who presided over the 2005 series – and claimed the discussion about the spirit in which this encounter will be played differed little from normal. While insisting his team were aware of their responsibilities to the spectators and the game, the England captain will encourage the fiery streak of his all-rounder Stokes, a player whose pre-series talk has been as punchy as the 85-ball century he struck against New Zealand in May.
“We all know how talented Ben is,” said Cook. “I like the way he has gone about his business this summer. He trains incredibly hard and physically he is in good shape. He understands international cricket a little bit better than when he started and he likes the competitive side of it. I just like the way he goes about it.”
On the threat of Johnson, the left-arm quick who took 37 wickets in the last series between the two sides, Cook added: “Mitchell was outstanding in that last series. But a lot of our guys have played a lot with him. It’s kind of 1-1, I suppose. We had the wood over him in 2010-11 and 2009. And he had the wood over us in the last series. I genuinely believe in this series it’s not just going to be about the one bowler or one player. It’s about which side plays the best cricket.”
