Cook challenges Mitch to repeat heroics

England captain Alastair Cook has compared Mitchell Johnson’s wave of destruction during the previous Ashes whitewash as a rare vein of form that was not dissimilar to his own batting dominance in Australia three years earlier.

The reborn skipper, who earlier this year assumed the role of England’s all-time leading Test runs scorer, has effectively thrown down the gauntlet to the bowler who tormented him throughout that 2013-14 whitewash by claiming the great challenge for a player was to try and replicate those runs of form.

Cook, who barring injury will finish this series as England’s second-most capped player 14 appearances behind Alec Stewart, endured the leanest series of his captaincy career when he scored less than 250 runs from 10 completed innings in Australia.

On four of those occasions he fell to Johnson who finished with 37 wickets for the summer, and triggered a horror spell for the opener who went 35 Test innings stretching across almost two years without scoring a century until his breakthrough hundred against the West Indies in Barbados last May.

It provided a stark contrast to his remarkable 2010-11 tour of Australia when he was unassailable in plundering 766 runs at an average of more than 127 with three centuries and a top score of 235 not out.

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Johnson celebrates taking Cook's wicket during the 13-14 Sydney Test // Getty

As if to underscore Cook’s view that it’s tough to dominate multiple Ashes series, only Ken Barrington and John Edrich have twice scored more than 500 runs in a campaign against Australia, and the legendary Jack Hobbs stands alone for achieving it three times.

But Cook believes it is not only the switch to the British pitches that he knows so well that will see him better placed than he was 18 months ago to contend with the threat of Johnson in the coming five-Test series that begins at Swalec Stadium in Cardiff tomorrow (Wednesday).

"Clearly the conditions do change a little bit, obviously the pace and bounce in these wickets aren’t as much," Cook said today.

"And Mitchell (Johnson) had the series of a lifetime, pretty similar to what happened in 2010-11 with my form, you get on a bit of a roll and you can do no wrong. 

"Always credit when 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."

WATCH: Johnson's athleticism close up

Of the 16 Australian bowlers to take more than 30 wickets in an Ashes series, only Terry Alderman, Dennis Lillee, Craig McDermott and Glenn McGrath have managed it twice, with Shane Warne (1993, 2001 and 2005) the only bowler to have pulled off a hat-trick.

Cook also points out that the team England takes into this campaign is markedly different to the one that became the second touring party to lose the Ashes five-nil in Australia in less than a decade.

Gone from that line-up are retired veterans Graeme Swann and Matt Prior, while Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Tim Bresnan are seemingly playing out their careers for county or Twenty20 franchise teams.

In their places come Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler who, as Cook points out, come without too many scars from campaigns past and provide an ideal counter-balance to the old hands such as James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ian Bell and the skipper himself.

"That side at the end of 2013-14 was right at the end of its life cycle, I suppose," Cook recalled as England prepared for to train under grey skies in Cardiff today.

"A lot of players have gone from that side who 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. 

"They've got the chance to create their own history."

The other notable change to the England set-up that removed coach Andy Flower in the immediate wake of their disastrous Australia tour is the recent appointment of former NSW Blues and Sydney Sixers coach Trevor Bayliss to take over that role.

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Bayliss puts England through their paces in Cardiff // Getty

Bayliss, the ex-NSW batsman who also guided Sri Lanka to the 2011 World Cup Final during his tenure there when he worked with current England assistant coach Paul Farbrace, oversaw training in Cardiff for the first time this week having arrived in England late last month.

He got to know his new players during a four-day retreat at a luxury golf resort in Spain last week, and Cook said that – once he got used to Bayliss’s broad Australian accent – he had quickly warmed to the new coach and to his tried and true methods.

"There is no nonsense to him,” Cook said of the man he will work closely with.

"He says what he thinks and we've only known him a week but he's pretty simple in his approach, he's made that clear. 

"And obviously he's got some good knowledge of the Australians from working with them over the last few years. 

"That's going to help us, but at the end of the day it's the eleven players (who take the field for England on Wednesday) that have got to do it."

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