England captain Alastair Cook believes winning this summer’s Ashes would rank as the greatest achievement of his career. 

The 30-year-old opener has endured a testing 18 months since he guided England to a 3-0 series victory over Australia in his first Ashes series as captain in 2013.

– #Quiz360: WIN a gym membership at FitRepublik
– EXCLUSIVE: Shahid Afridi happy to be T20 cricket’s gun for hire
– EXCLUSIVE: KKR CEO determined to take franchise global

England were humiliated in the ensuing matches Down Under as they suffered an embarrassing whitewash before going on to lose their two-match series at home to Sri Lanka last summer. 

Cook was then stripped of his one-day international captaincy only months before this year’s World Cup while his exemplary form with bat suffered, too. 

Indeed his century against the West Indies in May was his first in almost two years. Cook, who became the leading run-scorer in Tests for England in the tour of  the West Indies, has also resisted num-erous calls to resign his captaincy.

Yet buoyed by England’s displays against New Zealand in both formats of the game this summer, he is optimistic England can snatch the famous urn back from their fiercest rivals.

“It was an incredibly tough time,” said Cook. “Losing that Test series against Sri Lanka and that fourth day at Headingley is as tough as it can get, so from where we have been if we did win the Ashes at The Oval that would be remarkable, and something I would be very proud of – it would be my best achievement.

“We have a good chance of winning. It is going to be a highly competitive series and we will go in as underdogs because they are the best side in the world.

“But in our home conditions and with what has happened over last five or six weeks and the support we are getting, we have a really good chance.”

Cook and his England team-mates depart for Spain today for a pre-Ashes training camp as the England team build a rapport with new coach Trevor Bayliss.

The 52-year-old Australian has taken over from Peter Moores who was sacked as head coach following England’s miserable World Cup.

“We will go in as underdogs because they are the best side in the world” – Cook

“We can’t pretend it’s ideal meeting the coach for the first time a week before the Ashes,” said Cook, who dined with Bayliss last night before England’s departure for their four-day camp.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a coach I do not know at all. Obviously, with Peter Moores, Andrew Flower and Ashley Giles, I knew them, so I think it’s really exciting to have a guy totally from the outside and with a totally different set of eyes looking at us.

“The relationship with the coach is massive and I’ll spend a lot of time with him, and I think the guys will spend a lot of time with him, too.

“The guys have played a lot of cricket, and done a lot of training. It’s been pretty much non-stop since the start of the West Indies tour. Now it is about meeting Trevor and talking about what will happen over the next seven weeks.”

The Ashes begins in Cardiff on Wednesday, July 8.