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Healy pushing to prove fitness for Test | 03:32
Former England captain Alastair Cook believes there are “two or three years of hard work” ahead of the English women after being “20 per cent behind Australia in everything” this Ashes.
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England is staring down the barrel of a historic whitewash, with the series-ending Test match under lights at the MCG this Thursday its last chance to claim a win.
Cook, the maker of 12,472 Test runs, drew on comparisons to his side that was whitewashed twice in Australia before regaining the Ashes in the next series.
He is confident England will improve from its horror showing in Australia but says it won’t be a quick fix.
“The best thing about when you have lost 5-0 is that you’re at the bottom, and the only way out from the bottom is up,” Cook told the Cricket on TNT panel.
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“Ultimately I think they’re (England) 20 per cent behind Australia in everything: batting, bowling, fielding, athleticism, all the lot.
“So it’s actually ‘right, how do we start making those 20 per cent gains’? It doesn’t take one day, it’s not just a one-day thing, it’s not a five-minute thing.
“It is unfortunately two or three hard years of hard work as a team to get up to that level and that’s the reality of it.”
Cook’s England took back the Ashes in 2009 and 2013 after 5-0 losses in Australia the series before.
He says the journey back from the bottom will be even more rewarding for the English if they do regain the urn.
“But the exciting thing is being on that journey … when you get there, we lost 5-0 and 18 months later, or 500 or how many days as Nasser (Hussain) said, we won the Ashes back,” Cook said.
