Cook warns critics his ‘bat will do the talking’ during Ashes series

LONDON - England batsman Alastair Cook is confident that he can recapture his form to silence critics and play a full part in retaining the Ashes in Australia.

Cook averaged just 24.66 against Australia during the 2009 Ashes series, and needed a second-innings century against Pakistan this August to secure his place on the plane to Australia.

“Whenever you have a string of low scores (you worry). Your job is to score runs so when you’re not doing that it puts the pressure on. Everyone in the media was calling on me not to be in the side so to score runs under that pressure, when I needed it most and delivered, was good,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Cook, as saying.

“All of us will have to do that in Australia. Everyone can have their say, but we’re focused on what we do.”

“I did struggle for a couple of matches against Pakistan, but in the last 12 months I’ve scored four Test hundreds and hopefully I can go out there and prove a few of them wrong,” he added.

The opening batsman, who was in the touring side that was drubbed 5-0 in Australia four years ago, further believes that the balance of the current squad will yield a different result this time.

“As a side we’re in a better place, we’re stable and coming off a good 18 months where we’ve played some great cricket. The confidence is running throughout the side and everyone is very trusting of everyone else in the squad,” Cook said.

“Last time was different. The preparation time was a lot shorter due to the Champions Trophy just before. As a side we’re very confident we can play good cricket and I’m confident we can bring the urn back with us,” he added.

Earlier, Australian captain Ricky Ponting had targeted Cook as a weak link in the England squad by claiming that he is “just holding on to his spot by the skin of his teeth.” (ANI)