Alastair Cook sees room for improvement despite Aussie whitewash

 
Andy Hodgson12 July 2012

Alastair Cook refused to get carried away by England’s demolition of Australia, insisting his players must take their one-day form into major tournaments.

Last night’s seven-wicket win at rain-hit Old Trafford made it 10 victories on the trot, completed a 4-0 series rout of the old enemy and took England up to third in the world rankings.

Cook (58) and Ravi Bopara (53no) shared a stand of 92 to all but see England home, chasing a Duckworth-Lewis target of 138 in a rain-shortened match.

Cook said: “We hope we’re heading in the right direction. Clearly we are, with the group of players we’ve got.

“If we want to win tournaments, we have to be playing as well as we are now in the week when we enter those tournaments.

“That will be the aim. We’re desperate to keep building on this, expanding our skills so that we get better as a side.”

England’s series win, together with an equally emphatic one over West Indies earlier this summer, comes after they reached No1 status in Test and Twenty20 cricket.

Next year, they have the chance to beat the world on home ground — in the Champions Trophy tournament — before an Ashes clash with the Aussies.

“It feels good, great to win the series,” added Cook. “We’ve never let up throughout the four games we’ve played. We’ve always been at Australia and always tried to put them under some pressure.”

South Africa today called up wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile as Mark Boucher’s replacement.

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