After his poor performances, many began to call Cook’s future into question, but England’s highest run-maker has reiterated he still has the “hunger and desire” to play for his country.

Cook sits in sixth place on the list of highest Test run-scorers of all-time, 1,350 behind Ricky Ponting in second, and averaged just over 30 overall during the seven winter Tests, although a huge chunk of that came with his 244 not out in Melbourne, not passing 39 in his other 12 innings.

“You can make a couple of mistakes and suddenly the series can pass you by before you get into it. You kind of feel you haven’t done anything and it is incredibly frustrating.”

Cook’s Test place heading into the summer looks safe, at least in the immediate future, with few potential openers performing well enough to put the former England captain under pressure.

There are still question marks over his fellow opener from the winter, Mark Stoneman, who did not have a fantastic tour himself, and poor performances last summer from possible contenders for the spot, Keaton Jennings, Haseeb Hameed and Nick Gubbins.

Cook also commented on the appointment of Ed Smith as England’s new national selector. “It’s a freshen-up, a change of an old system. Ed thinks about things in a different way, so it is a really interesting appointment.”

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