England in bid to win back Ashes

Cook hopes Johnson won’t repeat series-winning form

IT IS hard to have more than one series of a lifetime and England captain Alastair Cook hopes that in Mitchell Johnson’s case it has already happened. The left-arm fast bowler took 37 wickets at under 14 apiece as Australia crushed England 5-0 in the 2013-14 Ashes down under.

As a result, there has been talk he could inflict similar damage when this season’s Ashes get under way with the first test in Cardiff today.

But just as Cook himself has come nowhere near matching his tally of 766 test runs at 127.66 during England’s victorious 2010-11 Ashes tour – indeed he averages under 28 in all other series against Australia – so he believes Johnson will find it hard to replicate his haul of wickets.

“Mitchell had the series of a lifetime [in 2013-14], pretty similar to what happened in 2010-11 with my form,” Cook said on the eve of the first test.

“You get on a bit of a roll and you can do no wrong. Credit where it’s due, he bowled very well and bowled quickly.

“Whether he can repeat that, that’s the challenge and we’ve got to make sure we cope with it better if he does.” Cook, taking up a theme voiced by England paceman Stuart Broad, also suggested conditions in Britain would work in England’s favour when it came to facing Johnson.

“Obviously, the pace and bounce in these wickets aren’t as much [as Australia],” he said.

With several members of England’s squad yet to play a test against Australia and leg-spinner Adil Rashid still to make a debut at this level, Cook said an injection of youthful verve would serve his side well.

“That side at the end of 2013-14 was right at the end of its life cycle I suppose,” he said. “A lot of players have gone from that side that were kind of hanging on.

“In this side we’ve got two or three slightly older statesmen I suppose you could call them, with 80 plus caps, and the majority of the side is under 15 caps and are really excited about their future,” Cook, 30, himself a veteran of 114 tests, said. “They’ve got the chance to create their own history,” England’s all-time leading test run-scorer said.

Australia parachuted Darren Lehmann into the position of coach after Mickey Arthur was sacked shortly before the 2013 Ashes in England. Although Australia lost that series, they have enjoyed plenty of success under former test batsman Lehmann since then, including winning this year’s World Cup.

Now England find themselves preparing for a first series under a new Australian coach in Trevor Bayliss, formerly in charge of Sri Lanka and New South Wales. “There is no nonsense to him. He says what he thinks and we’ve only known him a week but he’s pretty simple in his approach,” Cook said of Bayliss.

“Obviously, he’s got some good knowledge of the Australians from working with them over the last few years. That’s go- ing to help us but at the end of the day it’s the 11 players that have got to do it.”

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace worked with Bayliss before in Sri Lanka and had helped smooth the transition, Cook said.

But he insisted as captain he still had a major role in the running of the side.