Cook: Pakistan Ashes stepping-stone
Cook: Pakistan Ashes stepping-stone
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Wednesday, 12, Jul 2006 10:21
England batsman Alastair Cook has said that a series win over Pakistan will be the perfect stepping-stone for a good Ashes campaign.
The Essex left-hander has made the most of England's injury problems over recent series and has established himself as a regular in the Test team, averaging 51.14 in nine innings.
The 21-year-old will step out at Lord's tomorrow with the rest of the England side hoping for a better performance than when they lost 2-0 in Pakistan last winter.
However, Cook is looking for more, with a good performance hoping to set England up for a good Ashes campaign.
"We've had a meeting about it and we all want to go to Australia on the back of a morale-boosting series win which would be a perfect lead-in to Australia," Cook said.
England go into the series with Pakistan on the back of a poor run of form, which saw them lose the final match of the Test series against Sri Lanka, followed by a Twenty20 match defeat and a 5-0 whitewash in the one-day series against Mahela Jayawardene's team.
Cook believes England can learn from this and put it to good use against Pakistan.
"It didn't go to plan in the one-dayers, but in the Test series we played some good cricket but just didn't quite finish it off," Cook added.
"We're going to learn from that and come out fighting on Thursday and during the series."
The first Test begins tomorrow at Lord's at 11:00 BST.